DUKE 

UNIVERSITY 

LIBRARY 


Treasure  l^gom 


/2 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2012  with  funding  from 
Duke  University  Libraries 


http://archive.org/details/poemslettersoflo01byro 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS 
OF  LORD  BYRON 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS 
OF  LORD  BYRON 


EDITED  FROM  THE  ORIGINAL  MANUSCRD?TS  IN  THE  POSSESSION 
OF  W.  K.  BLXBY,  OF  ST.  LOUIS 

BY 

W.  N.  C.  CARLTON,  M.A. 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE 

SOCIETY  OF  THE  DOFOBS 

CHICAGO,  M  CM  XII 


Copyright,  1912,  by  the 
SOCIETY  OF  THE  DOFOBS 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Preface IX 


POEMS  IN  FACSIMILE 


FACING 
PAGE 


On  the  Death  of  Thyrza :  "Without  a  stone  to  mark 

the  spot"       10 

Stanzas:  "Away,  away,  ye  notes  of  woe!" 12 

Stanzas  to  Thyrza:  "One  struggle  more,  and  I  am  free"     .  12 

Stanzas :  "And  thou  art  dead,  as  young  and  fair"  .     ...  14 

A  Fragment:  "Could  I  remount  the  river  of  my  years"     .  14 

Stanzas  to  Augusta:  "Though  the  days  of  my  glory  are 

over" 18 

Epistle  to  Augusta:  "My  Sister!  my  sweet  Sister!  if  a 

name" ' 20 

LETTERS 

PAGE 

July  7, 1811,  to  James  Cawthorn 23 

July  13,  [1813,]  to  J.  W.  Croker 24 

March  2, 1814,  to  J.  Wedderburn  Webster 26 

November  20, 1817,  to  R.  B.  Hoppner 28 

November  28, 1819,  to  Douglas  Kinnaird 29 

March  31, 1820,  to  R.  B.  Hoppner 29 


52J  96  2 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

April  2, 1820,  to  Douglas  Kinnaird 32 

May  5, 1821,  to  [?  John  Murray] 34 

May  21, 1821,  to  R.  B.  Hoppner 34 

October  3, 1821,  to  [?  John  Murray] 35 

August  28, 1822,  to  Sir  Godfrey  Webster 36 

September  1, 1822,  to  Capt.  J.  Hay 36 

November  28, 1822,  to  Sir  Godfrey  Webster 37 

January  2, 1823,  to  R.  B.  Hoppner 38 


List  of  Lord  Byron's  books  at  Zante,  July  9, 1824 ....    43 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 
PAGE 


Lord  Byron IX 

From  a  drawing  by  George  Henry  Harlow 


"Playl"    Byron  as  a  cricketer 23 

From  a  lithograph  published  by  E.  Knight 

Lord  Byron 26 

From  a  drawing  by  George  Henry  Harlow 

Lord  Byron  at  the  age  of  thirty-one 30 

From  an  engraving  in  stipple  by  E.  Scriven  after  a  drawing 
by  George  Henry  Harlow 

Lord  Byron  on  his  deathbed 46 

From  an  engraving  by  L.  Clark  after  a  drawing  by  R.  Seymour, 
published  by  Knight  &  Lacey,  1825 


PREFACE 


i  a  series  of  pieces  such  as  compose  this 
\vsary  nor  desirable.  The  poems  and  letters 
rm  th«  chief  attraction  of  the  book  and  give  it  its 
notes  and  comment,  therefore,  have  been  mainly 
-  raation  as  seemed  to  make  for  a  clearer  and  better 
iece  than  its  text  alone  afforded.    They  have  also  been 
.  eader  from  the  irritating  drudgery  of  consulting  refer- 
is  purpose  in  rea^g^sdfltfjjoy. 
In  writ  i  ing  aph^wH^wab^Ba&i^^oijk-AftQiicsilonscious  of  a  per- 

petual chai  or  in  statement  or  inference.    Undoubtedly  a  large 

amount  o1  tnd  Byron  manuscripts  still  remain  unpublished. 


A 


:  V   .:  i  ■  •.  ■■ .  ( <  • 


This  mater 


•  were  in  c< 
may  already 
he  purpo* 
ters,  and  journal 

nd  auth 


v  probably  docs  contain  data  which  would  n 

jntly  accepted  facts  or  views  concerning  the  poel 

Vgain,  even  the  accomplished  editors  of  the  various 

i  vexing  habit  of  making  categorical  statements  with- 

ig  their  authority  for  them.    One  is  thus  left  to 

sertion  is  merely  the  editor's  personal  belief,  or 

for  it,  but  was  not  permitted  to  reveal  it.    It 

lar  letter  of  Byron's  has 
le  auth  >f  the  letters  there 

nes,  etc.,  of  persons  who  knew  Byron  or 
him,  in  some  one  of  which  a  newly  found 
mted. 
<>e,  the  last  edition  of  Byron's  poems,  let- 
of  Murray  has  been  taken  as  a 
work  is  indeed  "the  most  com- 


PREFACE 

A  DETAILED  commentary  on  a  series  of  pieces  such  as  compose  this 
volume  is  neither  necessary  nor  desirable.  The  poems  and  letters 
-  themselves  form  the  chief  attraction  of  the  book  and  give  it  its 
interest  and  value.  The  notes  and  comment,  therefore,  have  been  mainly 
restricted  to  such  information  as  seemed  to  make  for  a  clearer  and  better 
understanding  of  a  piece  than  its  text  alone  afforded.  They  have  also  been 
designed  to  save  the  reader  from  the  irritating  drudgery  of  consulting  refer- 
ence books  when  his  purpose  in  reading  is  to  enjoy. 

In  writing  anything  about  Byron  or  his  work  one  is  conscious  of  a  per- 
petual chance  of  error  in  statement  or  inference.  Undoubtedly  a  large 
amount  of  Byroniana  and  Byron  manuscripts  still  remain  unpublished. 
This  material  may  and  very  probably  does  contain  data  which  would  refute 
or  modify  many  currently  accepted  facts  or  views  concerning  the  poet  and 
his  life  and  works.  Again,  even  the  accomplished  editors  of  the  various 
Murray  editions  have  a  vexing  habit  of  making  categorical  statements  with- 
out adducing  or  mentioning  their  authority  for  them.  One  is  thus  left  to 
guess  whether  such  an  assertion  is  merely  the  editor's  personal  belief,  or 
whether  he  had  good  authority  for  it,  but  was  not  permitted  to  reveal  it.  It 
is  also  difficult  at  times  to  make  sure  that  a  particular  letter  of  Byron's  has 
never  been  published.  Besides  the  authorized  editions  of  the  letters  there 
are  scores  of  memoirs,  biographies,  etc.,  of  persons  who  knew  Byron  or 
who  were  in  correspondence  with  him,  in  some  one  of  which  a  newly  found 
letter  may  already  have  been  printed. 

For  the  purposes  of  this  volume,  the  last  edition  of  Byron's  poems,  let- 
ters, and  journals  as  published  by  the  house  of  Murray  has  been  taken  as  a 
canon  and  authority.    That  monumental  work  is  indeed  "the  most  com- 

Cixn 


PREFACE 

prehensive  and  scholarly  record  of  Byron's  life  and  work"  that  has  yet 
appeared.  It  was  issued  in  thirteen  volumes  between  1898  and  1904  under 
the  joint  editorship  of  Ernest  Hartley  Coleridge  and  Rowland  E.  Prothero. 
Unless  the  contrary  is  indicated,  all  quotations  in  the  following  pages, 
whether  from  letters  or  poems,  are  made  from  the  text  of  this  Murray  edi- 
tion. The  poems,  of  course,  have  long  been  in  print,  but  it  will  be  found 
interesting  to  compare  the  lines  as  originally  written  by  Byron  with  the 
verses  as  they  appear  in  the  printed  editions  of  the  poet's  works.  In  his 
neglect  of  punctuation  Byron  was  incorrigible.  He  left  that  detail  to  friends 
or  proof-readers.  "Do  attend  to  the  punctuation,"  he  wrote  to  Murray;  "I 
can't,  for  I  don't  know  a  comma — at  least  where  to  place  one." 

The  five  illustrations  are  from  prints  or  drawings  in  Mr.  W.  K.  Bixby's 
collection.  By  far  the  most  interesting  is  the  magnificent  sketch  by  Harlow 
which  forms  the  frontispiece.  The  prints  showing  Byron  as  a  cricketer  and 
on  his  death-bed  are  fanciful  sketches  and  have  no  value  as  portraits  of  the 
poet.  The  print  engraved  by  Scriven  shows  Byron  in  his  thirty-first  year; 
the  wavy  hair  is  much  longer  than  he  usually  wore  it. 

Many  of  Byron's  contemporaries  have  left  on  record  their  impressions 
of  his  striking  personal  appearance  and  the  beauty  of  his  countenance  when 
at  its  best.  "As  for  poets,"  said  Sir  Walter  Scott,  "I  have  seen  all  the  best  of 
my  time  and  country,  and,  though  Burns  had  the  most  glorious  eye  imagi- 
nable, I  never  thought  any  of  them  would  come  up  to  an  artist's  notion  of 
the  character,  except  Byron.  His  countenance  is  a  thing  to  dream  of." 
Coleridge  was  even  more  emphatic  than  Scott  in  praising  Byron's  looks. 
The  Countess  of  Blessington  gives  the  following  description  of  him  as  she 
saw  him  in  April,  1823:  "His  head  is  finely  shaped,  and  the  forehead  open, 
high,  and  noble;  his  eyes  are  grey  and  full  of  expression,  but  one  is  visibly 
larger  than  the  other;  the  nose  is  large  and  well  shaped,  but  from  being  a 
little  too  thick,  it  looks  better  in  profile  than  in  front-face;  his  mouth  is  the 
most  remarkable  feature  in  his  face,  the  upper  lip  of  Grecian  shortness,  and 
the  corners  descending;  the  lips  full  and  finely  cut." 

The  poetry  of  Lord  Byron  is  one  of  the  enduring  things  in  English  liter- 
ature.  The  first  of  the  great  modern  men  in  English  verse,  his  influence  on 


PREFACE 

the  intellectual  life  of  Europe  has  been  greater  than  that  of  any  other  Eng- 
lish man  of  letters,  Shakspere  alone  excepted.  It  may,  indeed,  be  ques- 
tioned whether  even  Shakspere's  European  influence  has  been  felt  in  so 
many  directions  as  has  Byron's.  The  dynamic  and  revolutionary  ideas  in 
the  poetry  of  Lord  Byron  profoundly  stirred  the  minds  and  influenced  the 
religious,  political,  and  social  views  of  Europe's  intellectual  advance-guard 
throughout  the  nineteenth  century.  Modern  liberalism  does  not  realize  the 
extent  of  its  debt  to  Byron,  and  perhaps  never  will,  but  the  future  historian 
of  ideas  will  surely  devote  a  special  chapter  to  the  subject  of  this  indebted- 
ness. "With  Byron,"  says  Georg  Brandes,  "romantic  sentimentality  comes 
to  an  end;  with  him  the  modern  spirit  in  poetry  originates;  therefore  it  was 
that  he  influenced  not  only  his  own  country,  but  Europe  also."  And  this 
same  great  critic,  whose  range  of  learning  in  literature  is  probably  greater 
than  that  of  any  other  writer  of  our  time,  thus  concludes  one  of  his  com- 
parative studies  in  European  literature: 

"Then,  like  Achilles  arising  in  his  wrath  after  he  has  burned  the  body  of 
Patroclus,  Byron,  after  Shelley's  death,  arises  and  lifts  up  his  mighty  voice. 
European  poetry  was  flowing  on  like  a  sluggish,  smooth  river;  those  who 
walked  along  its  banks  found  little  for  the  eye  to  rest  on.  All  at  once,  as  a 
continuation  of  the  stream,  appeared  this  poetry,  under  which  the  ground 
so  often  gave  way  that  it  precipitated  itself  in  cataracts  from  one  level  to 
another — and  the  eyes  of  all  inevitably  turn  to  that  part  of  a  river  where  its 
stream  becomes  a  waterfall.  In  Byron's  poetry  the  river  boiled  and 
foamed,  and  the  roar  of  its  waters  made  music  that  mounted  up  to  heaven. 
In  its  seething  fury  it  formed  whirlpools,  tore  itself  and  whatever  came  in 
its  way,  and  in  the  end  undermined  the  very  rocks.  But,  'in  the  midst  of  the 
infernal  surge,'  sat  such  an  Iris  as  the  poet  himself  has  described  in  'Childe 
Harold' — a  glorious  rainbow,  the  emblem  of  freedom  and  peace — invisible 
to  many,  but  clearly  seen  by  all  who,  with  the  sun  above  them  in  the  sky, 
place  themselves  in  the  right  position. 

It  presaged  better  days  for  Europe." 

The  poems  here  reproduced  belong  to  the  most  moving  and  beautiful  of 
all  Byron's  minor  verse.    Very  real  and  sincere  feelings  were  the  source 

Cxi] 


PREFACE 

whence  they  sprung,  and  these  pieces  are  proofs  of  the  truth  of  what  Byron 
once  wrote  to  Moore :  "I  could  not  write  upon  anything  without  some  per- 
sonal experience  and  foundation."  Goethe  insisted  that  two  cardinal  qual- 
ities were  required  in  the  true  poet:  intense  feeling  and  the  power  to 
express  it.  None  can  gainsay  Byron  the  possession  of  the  most  intense  and 
sensitive  feeling,  and  what  English  poet  surpasses  him  in  his  marvelous 
power  of  expression? 

The  facsimiles  of  the  little  group  of  poems  included  in  this  volume  show 
them  as  they  came  rushing  forth  from  the  poet's  heart  and  brain.  The  orig- 
inal manuscripts  were  once  the  property  of  the  Hon.  Mrs.  Leigh,  Byron's 
half-sister  Augusta.  Mr.  Richard  Edgcumbe  says  that  the  manuscripts  of 
the  Thyrza  poems  were  probably  given  to  Mrs.  Leigh  by  Mary  Chaworth; 
but  he  mentions  no  authority  for  his  statement,  and,  in  the  absence  of  posi- 
tive proof,  it  may  be  considered  highly  improbable  that  Mrs.  Leigh  received 
them  from  any  such  source.  Through  a  Mr.  Goddard,  Mrs.  Leigh  sold  them 
in  1848  to  John  Dillon,  Esq.  From  a  note  in  the  latest  Murray  edition  it 
appears  that  they  were  later  in  the  possession  of  Sir  Theodore  Martin. 

About  1902,  they  were  offered  for  sale  by  Henry  Sotheran  &  Co.,  of  Lon- 
don, in  a  collection  of  Byron  material  described  as  follows:  "Original manu- 
scripts of  seven  of  his  poems,  5  of  which  are  addressed  to  Thyrza,  and  2  to 
his  sister.  ...  In  all  27  pp.  folio  and  4°,  also  Letter  of  authentication  by 
John  Murray;  autograph  letters  of  the  poet's  father  and  mother,  and  three 
by  his  sister  relative  to  the  sale  of  these  mss.  Five  portraits  and  five  views. 
From  the  John  Dillon  Collection."  From  the  Messrs.  Sotheran  these 
precious  papers  passed  into  the  already  valuable  collection  of  Byron  manu- 
scripts of  Mr.  W.  K.  Bixby. 

The  Murray  letter  of  authentication  to  Mr.  Dillon  is  as  follows : 

"Albemarle  St. 

"March  [?  1876] 
"Dear  Sir: 

"In  compliance  with  your  wish,  I  have  examined  the  autographs  of 

Byron  contained  in  your  interesting  volume  and  as  far  as  my  experience 

goes  I  can  state  my  confident  belief  that  they  are  genuine.    They  are  cer- 

cxiin 


PREFACE 

tainly  very  different  from  the  celebrated  forgeries,  some  of  which  I  ac- 
cepted as  good  without  giving  the  careful  examination  I  have  done  to 
yours." 

One  of  the  letters  from  Mrs.  Leigh  to  Goddard  ends  with  words  which 
need  no  comment  or  explanation :  "I  have  prized  these  poems  and  admired 
them  so  very  much,  that  only  hard  necessity  would  have  induced  me  to 
part  with  them,  or  any  indeed,  but  these  least  of  all." 


OiiiH 


POEMS 


THE  THYRZA  POEMS 

The  so-called  "Thyrza  Poems"  are  usually  classed  in  the  group  entitled 
"Occasional  Pieces,"  a  group  which  may  be  described  as  the  aggregate  of 
the  shorter  poems  written  between  the  years  1809  and  1813  which  the  author 
considered  worthy  of  a  permanent  place  among  his  poetical  works.  The 
Thyrza  poems  were  written  during  one  of  the  darkest  and  most  melancholy 
periods  in  Byron's  life.  Four  of  them  are  among  those  here  reproduced. 
Mrs.  Leigh  wrote  to  Goddard  that  she  never  had  the  one  entitled  "Eutha- 
nasia" nor  the  last,  i.e.,  the  one  beginning,  "If  sometimes  in  the  haunts  of 
men,"  etc. 

In  order  to  appreciate  something  of  Byron's  mood  during  the  months 
when  these  famous  stanzas  were  composed,  one  has  only  to  recall  the  frame 
of  mind  in  which  he  returned  to  England  from  his  two  years'  travel  in  the 
East  and  the  series  of  blows  dealt  him  by  fate  almost  immediately  after  his 
arrival. 

Writing  on  June  29, 1811,  to  his  friend  Hodgson  from  aboard  the  frigate 
which  was  bearing  him  home,  he  says :  "Indeed,  my  prospects  are  not  very 
pleasant.  Embarrassed  in  my  private  affairs,  indifferent  to  public,  solitary 
without  the  wish  to  be  social,  with  a  body  a  little  enfeebled  by  a  succession 
of  fevers,  but  a  spirit,  I  trust,  yet  unbroken,  I  am  returning  home  without 
hope,  and  almost  without  a  desire.  The  first  thing  I  shall  have  to  encounter 
will  be  a  lawyer,  the  next  a  creditor,  then  colliers,  farmers,  surveyors,  and 
all  the  agreeable  attachments  to  estates  out  of  repair,  and  contested  coal- 
pits." 

He  reached  England  about  the  middle  of  July  and  on  the  twenty-third 
wrote  to  his  mother  from  London  saying  that  he  would  shortly  be  with  her 

£33 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

at  Newstead  for  a  short  visit.  While  in  London,  he  learned  of  the  death  at 
Coimbra  in  Portugal  of  his  old  school-fellow,  John  Wingfield  of  the  Cold- 
stream Guards.  "Of  all  human  beings,  I  was  perhaps  at  one  time  most  at- 
tached to  poor  Wingfield,"  wrote  Byron,  and  later  he  made  a  mournful 
reference  to  this  friend  in  the  ninety-first  stanza  of  the  first  canto  of  "Childe 
Harold."  Another  friend,  Hargreaves  Hanson,  had  passed  away  that 
spring;  and  in  May,  Edleston,  the  young  Cambridge  chorister,  died  of  con- 
sumption. On  August  1,  before  Byron  had  reached  Newstead,  his  mother 
died  very  suddenly.  "I  heard  one  day  of  her  illness,  the  next  of  her  death," 
he  says.  That  same  week,  Charles  Skinner  Matthews,  whom  he  calls  his 
"guide,  philosopher,  and  friend,"  was  drowned  in  the  Cam.  "Some  curse 
hangs  over  me  and  mine,"  he  wrote  to  Scrope  Davies  on  August  7.  "My 
mother  lies  a  corpse  in  this  house;  one  of  my  best  friends  is  drowned  in  a 
ditch.  .  .  .  Come  to  me,  Scrope,  I  am  almost  desolate — left  almost  alone  in 
the  world."  Davies  hurried  down  to  him  and  by  the  end  of  the  month 
Byron  had  gathered  himself  together  again,  but  the  gloom  of  profound 
melancholy  could  not  be  entirely  shaken  off.  On  October  11,  he  writes  to 
Dallas,  "I  am  indeed  very  wretched,  and  you  will  excuse  my  saying  so,  as 
you  know  I  am  not  apt  to  cant  of  sensibility."  On  the  thirteenth,  he  said  to 
Hodgson:  "Your  climate  kills  me;  I  can  neither  read,  write,  nor  amuse 
myself,  or  any  one  else.  My  days  are  listless;  I  have  very  seldom  any  so- 
ciety, and  when  I  have,  I  run  out  of  it."  Such  were  some  of  the  events  and 
such  his  mood  just  prior  to  the  writing  of  the  first  of  the  Thyrza  poems. 

Nearly  every  biographer  of  Byron,  from  Moore  to  Gribble,  has  busied 
himself  with  the  identity  of  the  person  whom  the  poet  calls  Thyrza.  Each 
has  settled  the  question  to  his  own  satisfaction,  but  rarely  to  that  of  any 
other  independent  theorist  or  investigator.  A  collection  of  the  chief  of 
these  "identifications"  may  furnish  another  addition  to  the  gallery  of 
"curiosities  of  literature"  and  supply  another  charming  instance  of  wasted 
effort  in  the  field  of  literary  hermeneutics. 

"It  was,"  says  Thomas  Moore,  "about  the  time  when  he  was  thus  bitterly 
feeling,  and  expressing,  the  blight  which  his  heart  had  suffered  from  a  real 
object  of  affection,  that  his  poems  on  the  death  of  an  imaginary  one  were 

CO 


POEMS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

written; — nor  is  it  any  wonder,  when  we  consider  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances under  which  these  beautiful  effusions  flowed  from  his  fancy,  that 
of  all  his  strains  of  pathos,  they  should  be  the  most  touching  and  most  pure. 
They  were,  indeed,  the  essence,  the  abstract  spirit,  as  it  were,  of  many 
griefs; — a  confluence  of  sad  thoughts  from  many  sources  of  sorrow,  re- 
fined and  warmed  in  their  passage  through  his  fancy,  and  forming  thus  one 
deep  reservoir  of  mournful  feeling." 

The  editor  of  the  1832  edition  of  Byron's  works  rejected  Moore's  theory 
and  associated  Thyrza  with  the  (unnamed)  person  referred  to  by  Byron  in 
his  letter  of  October  11,  1811,  addressed  to  Dallas:  "I  have  again  been 
shocked  with  a  death,  and  have  lost  one  very  dear  to  me  in  happier  times." 
But  the  latest  editor  of  Byron's  letters,  Mr.  Prothero,  says  this  reference  is 
to  the  death  of  Edleston,  and  he  is  probably  correct,  even  though  the  event 
occurred  some  five  months  previous  to  the  date  under  which  Byron  wrote. 
The  Hon.  Roden  Noel,  however,  appears  to  lean  toward  the  view  that 
Edleston  was  the  original  of  Thyrza,  and  offers  the  following  extraordinary 
suggestion:  "If  Thyrza  was  Edleston,  disguised  under  a  female  name,  his 
[Byron's]  passionate  friendship  may  be  likened  to  Shakespeare's  'Sonnets' 
and  [Tennyson's]  'In  Memoriam.'  "  It  is  difficult  to  be  patient  with  a  mind 
which  could  imagine  the  original  of  Thyrza  to  be  other  than  a  woman. 

Trelawney,  in  his  "Recollections  of  the  Last  Days  of  Shelley  and  Byron" 
(1858),  quotes  Byron  as  saying:  "When  I  first  left  England  I  was  gloomy. 
I  said  so  in  my  first  canto  of  'Childe  Harold.'  I  was  then  really  in  love  with 
a  cousin  [Thirza,  he  was  very  chary  of  her  name] ,  and  she  was  in  a  decline." 
This  incident  occurred  in  1823.  The  words  in  brackets  are  Trelawney's,  but 
nowhere  does  he  give  the  slightest  hint  of  his  authority  for  connecting  this 
cousin  with  Thyrza. 

In  1876,  Professor  William  Minto  advanced  a  new  theory  in  his  article 
on  Byron  in  the  ninth  edition  of  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica.  He  ex- 
panded it  in  detail  in  the  London  Athenaeum  of  September  2,  1876.  A  few 
words  of  explanation  are  necessary  before  quoting  the  Scotch  professor's 
ingenious  solution. 

During  the  earlier  months  of  1808,  Byron  traveled  about  in  company 

C53 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

with  a  fille  de  joie  dressed  in  boy's  clothes.  "Another  of  the  wild  freaks  I 
played  during  my  mother's  life-time,"  he  told  Medwin,  "was  to  dress  up 

Mrs.  ,  and  to  pass  her  off  as  my  brother  Gordon,  in  order  that  my 

mother  might  not  hear  of  my  having  such  a  female  acquaintance."  Moore 
is  also  authority  for  the  statement,  so  euphemistically  phrased,  that  this  girl 
not  only  became  "domesticated  with  him  in  lodgings  at  Brompton,"  but 
accompanied  him  to  Brighton  disguised  in  boy's  clothes. 

Her  identity  of  course  has  never  been  revealed,  but  she  is  the  individual 
whom  Professor  Minto  believes  to  have  been  the  original  of  Thyrza.  He 
says :  "Nothing  ever  racked  him  with  sharper  anguish  than  the  death  of  her 
whom  he  mourned  under  the  name  of  Thyrza.  To  know  the  bitterness  of 
his  struggle  with  this  sorrow,  we  have  only  to  look  at  what  he  wrote  on  the 
day  that  news  reached  him  [October  11, 1811] ;  some  of  his  wildest  and  most 
fiercely  misanthropical  verse,  as  well  as  some  of  his  sweetest  and  saddest, 
belongs  to  that  blackest  of  dates  in  his  calendar.  .  .  .  Who  Thyrza  was  can 
probably  never  be  known,  but,  in  trying  to  convey  the  impression  that  she 
was  merely  imaginary,  probably  with  the  intention  of  shielding  his  friend's 
memory,  by  declaring  him  innocent  of  a  relationship  unsanctioned  by  so- 
ciety, Moore  really  did  Byron  an  injustice.  The  poor  girl,  whoever  she  was, 
and  however  much  she  was  deified  after  her  death  by  his  imagination, 
would  really  seem  to  have  been  his  grand  passion.  ...  It  is  impossible  to 
trace  what  became  of  the  poor  girl,  but  it  is  a  fair  conjecture  that  she  is  com- 
memorated as  Thyrza.  If  this  girl  died  before  she  could  welcome  him  on 
his  return  from  his  wanderings  in  1811,  nothing  is  more  likely  than  that  he 
should  reproach  himself  with  her  death." 

The  good  professor's  theory  does  him  credit  as  a  man,  but  we  fear  that 
he  has  greatly  misread  both  the  poetry  and  the  temperament  of  Lord  Byron. 

John  Cordy  Jeaffreson,  in  "The  Real  Lord  Byron"  (1883),  while  admit- 
ting that  the  poems  contain  lines  pointing  to  some  other  person,  believes 
that  Byron's  cousin  Margaret  Parker  was  the  chief  inspiring  force  of  these 
"unutterably  tender  and  pathetic  poems."  He  reasons  thus  in  support  of 
his  contention:  "Thyrza  died  when  the  poet  was  far  away  from  her;  so  did 
Margaret  Parker.    Thyrza  had  been  the  poet's  companion  in  those  deserted 

C6H 


POEMS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

towers  of  Newstead;  Margaret  Parker  had  also  been  his  companion  there. 
The  mutual  love  of  Thyrza  and  the  poet  was  known  only  to  themselves, 
their  smiles  being  'smiles  none  else  might  understand';  so  it  was  with  Byron 
and  Margaret.  Thyrza  and  the  poet  exchanged  love-tokens;  Byron  and 
Margaret  Parker  did  the  same.  The  poet  wore  Thyrza's  love-token;  Byron 
wore  Margaret  Parker's  locket  next  his  heart.  The  mutual  affection  of 
Thyrza  and  the  poet  was  the  sentiment  of  young  people,  so  innocent  of  de- 
sire, that  'even  Passion  blushed  to  plead  for  more.'  So  was  the  mutual 
devotion  of  Margaret  and  her  cousin."  Seizing  upon  Trelawney's  state- 
ment, Jeaffreson  drives  home  his  argument  by  saying:  "Byron's  cousin 
Margaret  Parker  died  of  a  decline,  and  was  the  only  one  of  his  cousins  to  die 
of  that  malady  after  inspiring  him  with  love.  True  that  she  died  long  be- 
fore he  left  England;  but  to  his  poetic  fancy  she  was  still  living  and  fading 
away  when  he  thought  of  her  on  his  travels.  The  mystification  and  his- 
torical inaccuracy  of  the  poet's  statement  do  not  weaken  the  evidence 
afforded  by  the  words  that  Margaret  and  Thyrza  were  the  same  person  in 
his  mind." 

Verily,  verily,  we  believe  what  we  wish  to  believe.  For  the  plain  re- 
corded facts  with  reference  to  Lord  Byron  and  Margaret  we  need  only 
quote  the  poet's  own  words  which  give  succinctly  the  whole  story  and  all 
the  story  there  is  in  this  connection.  He  says:  "My  first  dash  into  poetry 
was  as  early  as  1800.  It  was  the  ebullition  of  a  passion  for  my  first  cousin, 
Margaret  Parker  (daughter  and  granddaughter  of  the  two  Admirals 
Parker),  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  evanescent  beings.  I  have  long  for- 
gotten the  verse;  but  it  would  be  difficult  for  me  to  forget  her — her  dark 
eyes — her  long  eye-lashes — her  completely  Greek  cast  of  face  and  figure! 
I  was  then  about  twelve — she  rather  older,  perhaps  a  year.  She  died  about 
a  year  or  two  afterwards,  in  consequence  of  a  fall,  which  injured  her  spine, 
and  induced  consumption.  ...  I  knew  nothing  of  her  illness  being  at  Har- 
row and  in  the  country  till  she  was  gone.  Some  years  after,  I  made  an 
attempt  at  an  elegy — a  very  dull  one."  His  tribute  to  Margaret  is  given  in 
his  poem  entitled  "On  the  Death  of  a  Young  Lady,  Cousin  to  the  Author 
and  Very  Dear  to  Him,"  the  first  stanza  of  which  runs  as  follows : 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

"Hushed  are  the  winds,  and  still  the  evening  gloom, 
Not  e'en  a  zephyr  wanders  through  the  grove, 
Whilst  I  return,  to  view  my  Margaret's  tomb, 
And  scatter  flowers  on  the  dust  I  love." 

Mr.  Ernest  Hartley  Coleridge  silently  and  perhaps  justly  ignores  all  the 
foregoing  theories  and  identifications,  but  appends  this  foot-note  to  the  first 
Thyrza  poem :  "The  identity  of  Thyrza  and  the  question  whether  the  person 
addressed  under  this  name  really  existed,  or  was  an  imaginary  being,  have 
given  rise  to  much  speculation  and  discussion  of  a  more  or  less  futile  kind. 
This  difficulty  is  now  incapable  of  definite  and  authoritative  solution,  and 
the  allusions  in  the  verses  in  some  respects  disagree  with  things  said  by 
Lord  Byron  later.  .  .  .  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Lord  Byron  referred  to 
Thyrza  in  conversation  with  Lady  Byron,  and  probably  also  with  Mrs. 
Leigh,  as  a  young  girl  who  had  existed,  and  the  date  of  whose  death  almost 
coincided  with  Lord  Byron's  landing  in  England  in  1811.  On  one  occasion 
he  showed  Lady  Byron  a  beautiful  tress  of  hair,  which  she  understood  to  be 
Thyrza's.  He  said  he  had  never  mentioned  her  name,  and  that  now  she  was 
gone  his  breast  was  the  sole  depository  of  that  secret.  .  .  . 

"Thyrza  is  mentioned  in  a  letter  from  Elizabeth,  Duchess  of  Devonshire, 
to  Augustus  Foster  (London,  May  4, 1812) :  'Your  little  friend,  Caro  William 
[Lady  Caroline  Lamb],  as  usual,  is  doing  all  sorts  of  imprudent  things  for 
him  [Lord  Byron]  and  with  him;  he  admires  her  very  much,  but  is  sup- 
posed to  admire  our  Caroline  [the  Hon.  Mrs.  George  Lamb]  more:  he  says 
she  is  like  Thyrza,  and  her  singing  is  enchantment  to  him.'  " 

Mr.  Richard  Edgcumbe,  in  his  interesting  book,  "Byron :  the  Last  Phase" 
(1909).  finds  in  Mary  Chaworth  (Mrs.  Musters)  the  original  of  Thyrza.  "It 
was,"  he  says,  "through  the  depressing  influence  of  solitude  that  the  idea 
entered  Byron's  mind  to  depict  his  (possibly  eternal)  separation  from  Mary 
Chaworth  in  terms  synonymous  with  death.  With  a  deep  feeling  of  desola- 
tion he  recalled  every  incident  of  his  boyish  love.  We  have  seen  how  the 
image  of  his  lost  Mary,  now  the  wife  of  his  rival,  deepened  the  gloom  caused 

C  8  3 


POEMS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

by  the  sudden  death  of  his  mother,  and  of  some  of  his  college  friends.  It 
was  to  Mary,  whom  he  dared  not  name,  that  he  cried  in  agony: 

"  'By  man}'  a  shore  and  many  a  sea 
Divided,  yet  beloved  in  vain; 
The  Past,  the  Future  fled  to  thee, 
To  bid  us  meet — no — ne'er  again!' 

.  .  .  These  three  pieces  comprise  the  so-called  'Thyrza'  poems,  and  in  the 
absence  of  proof  to  the  contrary  we  may  reasonably  suppose  that  their  sub- 
ject was  Mary  Chaworth.  This  is  the  more  likely  because  the  original 
manuscripts  were  the  property  of  Byron's  sister,  to  whom  they  were  prob- 
ably given  by  Mary  Chaworth,  when,  in  later  years,  she  destroyed  or  parted 
with  all  the  letters  and  documents  which  she  had  received  from  Byron  since 
the  days  of  their  childhood." 

Francis  Gribble,  in  the  "Love  Affairs  of  Lord  Byron"  (1910),  adopting 
Mr.  Edgcumbe's  theory  that  Mary  Chaworth  was  the  one  woman  whom 
Byron  consistently  loved  throughout  his  life,  also  accepts  the  view  that  she 
was  Thyrza.  He  says:  "The  invisible  force  which  was  beginning  to  in- 
fluence Byron's  life,  and  was  presently  to  deflect  it,  was  a  revival  of  his 
recollections  of  Mary  Chaworth.  He  nowhere  tells  us  so,  nor  do  his  biog- 
raphers on  his  behalf,  but  the  fact  is  none  the  less  quite  certain.  The  proofs 
abound,  though  the  name  is  never  mentioned  in  them;  and  Mr.  Richard 
Edgcumbe  has  marshalled  them  with  conclusive  force.  The  course  which 
Byron's  life  followed — the  things  which  he  willed  and  did,  as  well  as  the 
things  he  said — can  only  be  explained  if  Mary  Chaworth  is  once  more 
brought  into  the  story. . . .  Though  Byron  spoke  of  Thyrza  to  his  friends  as 
a  real  person  and  showed  a  lock  of  her  hair,  no  trace  of  any  woman  an- 
swering to  her  description  can  be  discovered  in  any  chronicle  of  his  life. 
The  explanation  is  that  Thyrza  was  not  really  dead,  though  Byron  chose 
so  to  write  of  her.  Thyrza  was  Mary  Chaworth  who  was  dead  to  Byron 
in  the  sense  that  she  had  passed  out  of  his  life,  as  he  had  every  reason  to 
think  (though  he  thought  wrongly)  for  ever.  .  .  .  They  [the  poems]  ex- 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

pressed,  in  fact,  his  despair  at  finding  the  secret  orchard  tenanted  only  by  a 
ghost;  and  if  we  read  the  poems  by  the  light  of  that  clue,  we  can  get  a  clear 
meaning  out  of  every  line." 

As  a  hint  to  future  Dryasdusts,  we  might  suggest  that  Byron's  letter  of 
October  28,  1811,  to  Mrs.  Pigott  offers  a  hint  that  might  lead  to  another 
literary  mare's  nest.  In  that  letter  he  speaks  of  Edleston's  death  as  "making 
the  sixth,  within  four  months,  of  friends  and  relatives  that  I  have  lost  be- 
tween May  and  the  end  of  August."  Five  of  these  persons,  as  we  know, 
were  Hargreaves  Hanson,  Wingfield,  Matthews,  Edleston,  and  Mrs.  Byron. 
But  who  was  the  other?  Was  it  the  unknown,  unnamed  original  of  Thyrza? 
No  one  seems  to  have  worked  that  vein  of  inquiry. 

After  all,  is  it  worth  while?  Does  the  true  lover  of  Byron's  poetry  care 
a  jot  or  tittle  who  the  individual  was  who  inspired  these  verses?  We  be- 
lieve not,  and  for  our  part  we  are  content  to  leave  the  question  where  Mrs. 
Leigh  left  it.  In  a  letter  of  December  12,  1848,  to  Mr.  Goddard  about  the 
manuscripts  of  Thyrza,  she  says  explicitly:  "Mr.  Moore  (I  take  the  liberty 
to  say)  was  mistaken  as  to  the  Person  designated  as  Thyrza.  My  Brother 
told  me  no  one  knew  who  she  was,  and  evinced  so  mournful  and  deep  a 
feeling  at  that  question,  I  never  ventured  to  repeat  it." 

The  name  Thyrza  appears  to  be  a  variant  of  Teresa.  In  the  preface  to 
"Cain,"  Byron  writes:  "Gesner's  'Death  of  Abel'  I  have  never  read  since  I 
was  eight  years  of  age  at  Aberdeen.  The  general  impression  of  my  recol- 
lection is  delight,  but  of  the  contents  I  remember  only  that  Cain's  wife  was 
called  Mahala,  and  Abel's  Thirza."  When  in  Athens  in  1810,  Byron  flirted 
with  three  daughters  of  his  landlady,  Theodora  Macri,  but  the  one  to  whom 
he  seems  to  have  paid  most  attention  was  Theresa,  whom  he  has  immortal- 
ized in  his  poem, 

"Maid  of  Athens,  ere  we  part, 
Give,  oh,  give  me  back  my  heart!" 

Ernest  Hartley  Coleridge  thinks  another  and  more  immediate  sugges- 
tion of  the  name  may  be  traced  to  the  following  translation  of  Meleager's 
Epitaphium  "In  Heliodoram,"  which  one  of  the  "associate  bards,"  Bland  or 


^t   4  7  <*  /SV 


^  fyL*¥.~4*? -f    


-t-  /Si_~ 


s? 


^Cr-  „^  w>-  --  /— ^  ^  A 
fn  ^/-  £&-  ~^  -  *<-'~  %<^/Z"  ^ 

JucL      Sy       jZ~      ^       ^-     ^—     ^^"    ^ 


/> 


'^U-       J^cn—        jtfL*^> 


£.-t^~  &-* 


t 


K  I 


/ 


#>       &*~S 


a_^       *b*  -/~     *>?  -    *^  <>*~- 


£fS~    f*r**^\- 


t---^~      £ ' 


<2-vo 


&u~,  fo  f&  ^/L-c-   *-#*«.   ^ 


A  ^  A  y\ 


I 


POEMS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

Merivale  or  Hodgson,  contributed  to  their  "Translations  chiefly  from  the 
Greek  Anthology"  (1806,  page  4) : 

"Tears  o'er  my  parted  Thyrza's  grave  I  shed, 
Affection's  fondest  tribute  to  the  dead. 

•  ••••• 

Break,  break  my  heart,  o'ercharged  with  bursting  woe 

An  empty  offering  to  the  shades  below! 

Ah,  plant  regretted!    Death's  remorseless  power, 

With  dust  unfruitful  checked  thy  full-blown  flower. 

Take,  earth,  the  gentle  inmate  to  thy  breast, 

And  soft-embosomed  let  my  Thyrza  rest." 

Later  in  his  life,  Byron  loved  another  of  this  name.  Before  her  mar- 
riage the  Countess  Guiccioli  was  Teresa  Gamba.  In  his  poem  "Mazeppa"  the 
name  of  the  fair  lady  of  the  intrigue  is  given  as  Theresa,  and  a  learned  Ger- 
man, Dr.  Englaender,  has  exhaustively  argued  in  behalf  of  the  contention 
that  the  Countess  was  in  the  poet's  mind  when  the  charms  of  the  Theresa 
in  the  poem  were  being  described.  An  equally  learned  Herr  Doctor,  Pro- 
fessor Kolbing,  has  argued  with  equal  profundity  that  this  could  not  pos- 
sibly be  the  case.    There  we  may  safely  and  confidently  leave  the  question. 


ON  THE  DEATH  OF  THYRZA 

In  most,  if  not  all,  editions  of  Byron,  the  title  of  this  poem  reads  simply 
"To  Thyrza,"  and  the  date  October  11  is  assigned  it.  As  will  be  seen  from 
the  facsimile,  the  manuscript  in  the  Bixby  collection  bears  the  date  "October 
27th,  1811"  very  distinctly.  On  the  twenty-seventh,  Byron  was  writing  to 
Moore  from  Cambridge,  and  on  the  twenty-eighth  he  arrived  in  London. 
The  poem  first  appeared  in  the  first  edition  of  "Childe  Harold"  (1812,  4°). 
In  a  letter  to  Murray,  written  August  26, 1815,  Byron  specifically  directs  how 
this  poem  should  be  printed :  "In  reading  the  4th  vol.  of  your  last  Edition  of 

CI!] 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

the  poems  published  in  my  name,  I  perceive  that  piece  12,  page  55,  is  made 
nonsense  of  (that  is  greater  nonsense  than  usual)  by  dividing  it  into  Stanzas 
1,  2,  etc.,  etc.,  in  which  form  it  was  not  written, — and  not  printed  in  the  8vo 
Editions.  The  poem  in  question  is  one  continued  piece  and  not  divided 
into  sections,  as  you  may  easily  perceive  by  the  printing,  and  as  such  I 
request  that  in  future  (when  opportunity  occurs)  it  may  be  printed. 

"P.  S.  The  poem  begins  'Without  a  Stone,'  etc.  I  send  it  as  it  was  and 
ought  to  be." 

Cordy  Jeaffreson  calls  it  "a  poem  written  in  tears  and  not  to  be  read  with 
tearless  eyes." 

AWAY,  AWAY,  YE  NOTES  OF  WOE! 

In  a  letter  to  Hodgson  written  on  the  day  this  poem  was  composed,  Decem- 
ber 6, 1811,  Byron  refers  to  it  thus:  "I  sent  you  a  sad  Tale  of  Three  Friars 
the  other  day,  and  now  take  a  dose  in  another  style.  I  wrote  it  a  day  or  two 
ago,  on  hearing  a  song  of  former  days."  It  was  first  published  in  the  quarto 
edition  of  "Childe  Harold"  (1812),  and  bore  the  title  "Stanzas,"  as  in  the 
manuscript. 

ONE  STRUGGLE  MORE  AND  I  AM  FREE 

This,  like  the  two  preceding,  appeared  first  in  the  quarto  edition  of  "Childe 
Harold,"  among  the  fourteen  poems  appended  to  the  two  cantos  of  the  title 
poem.  In  all  editions  from  1812  to  1831  it  was  called  "To  Thyrza."  It  is 
possible  that  the  following  letter,  written  to  Hodgson  from  Patras  in  the 
Morea,  October  3, 1810,  describes  the  occasion  referred  to  in  the  lines, 

"When  stretched  on  Fever's  sleepless  bed, 
And  sickness  shrunk  my  throbbing  veins" : 

"As  I  have  just  escaped  from  a  physician  and  a  fever,  which  confined 
me  five  days  to  bed,  you  won't  expect  much  allegrezza  in  the  ensuing  letter. 

EM 


J& 


f    </*V^         ^*^       1+~+  fi&t-t^  V#*~*J*>         "f^ 

A 

— '""  If 


.  -•'  /h^    isttCZ    fi£>+si'~  sy^A-rO-     ££**&- 

&y^  ■*&*:.  %&  <^  ^  "~^ 


■if 


,^^_^^^-^^^ 


# 


X*»m> 


/? 


<ru^.. 


&L  itz~^  /*~A  f-^  ^  ^^  A 


'-*&t~^.- 


£&9^j 


^l  U^  Y«^  —  £^- 


,  \/     C4CS*^*y~* 


<?*   *?A^ 


JfL*,    A^~/r&- 


^t^-  • 


rfjL     ?<^£~ 


^£*-/^£~ 


I 


0 


ViC    ^ 


V 


^>  -AS* 


7 


#£  *r* 


&1-* 


/   V      / 


C,  «  tf«  » — c— 


C**^£^ 


/■ 


J^^^~ 


A 


<* , 


r 


j%L  <^/^uJ-  -~-    ^~-  «~~- '<~'/-  ~~> 
J&,    &:,-}  4    ^-'  "*4-  '^~~ 


.  >        .    ^L^  ■<^"  «*&  af 

r  a£-  *■* — * 


^_      *£<fc    *^e*  ,   *^~     ~"  "~~^     * 

^V  £r^  -^~  f  ■">  *^ 


6. 


C~0c 


£*^0*£.- 


s^gJu., 


^J*~0* 


^&7<L   && 


<?z& 


POEMS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

In  this  place  there  is  an  indigenous  distemper,  which  when  the  wind  blows 
from  the  Gulf  of  Corinth  (as  it  does  five  months  out  of  the  six),  attacks 
great  and  small,  and  makes  woful  work  with  visitors.  Here  be  also  two 
physicians,  one  of  whom  trusts  to  his  genius  (never  having  studied) — the 
other  to  a  campaign  of  eighteen  months  against  the  sick  of  Otranto,  which 
he  made  in  his  youth  with  great  effect.  When  I  was  seized  with  my  dis- 
order, I  protested  against  both  these  assassins; — but  what  can  a  helpless, 
feverish,  toast-and-watered  poor  wretch  do?  In  spite  of  my  teeth  and 
tongue,  the  English  Consul,  my  Tartar,  Albanians,  dragoman,  forced  a  phy- 
sician upon  me,  and  in  three  days  vomited  and  glystered  me  to  the  last  gasp. 
In  this  state  I  made  my  epitaph — take  it: — 

"Youth,  Nature,  and  relenting  Jove, 
To  keep  my  lamp  in  strongly  strove: 
But  Romanelli  was  so  stout, 
He  beat  all  three — and  blew  it  out. 

But  Nature  and  Jove,  being  piqued  at  my  doubts,  did,  in  fact,  beat  Roma- 
nelli, and  here  I  am,  well  but  weakly,  at  your  service." 


AND  THOU  ART  DEAD,  AS  YOUNG  AND  FAIR 

This  poem,  written  in  February,  1812,  appeared  in  the  second  octavo  edi- 
tion of  "Childe  Harold"  (1812).  In  that  and  all  succeeding  editions  down 
to  1831,  it  bore  the  title  "Stanzas."  The  manuscript  in  the  Bixby  collection 
does  not  contain  the  stanzas  numbered  6,  7,  8,  in  the  poem  as  printed  in  the 
last  Murray  edition.  Mrs.  Leigh  wrote  as  follows  concerning  this :  "I  cannot 
express  my  vexation  about  these  deficiencies  which  Mr.  Dillon  mentions.  I 
have  hunted  over  my  remaining  scraps  to-day,  and  I  have  found  two  of  the 
missing  Stanzas  in  'And  art  thou  dead';  the  third  missing  is  [that]  between 
the  two  I  have  found,  and  he  no  doubt  wrote  it  afterwards;  he  was  very  apt 
to  alter  and  revise." 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

Writing  to  John  Murray,  April  10,  1814,  about  the  "Ode  to  Napoleon 
Buonaparte,"  which  he  had  just  composed,  Byron  adds  in  a  postscript:  "It 
is  in  the  measure  of  my  stanzas  at  the  end  of  'Childe  Harold,'  which  were 
much  liked;  beginning,  'And  thou  art  dead,'  etc." 


A  FRAGMENT 

This  was  written  at  the  Villa  Diodati  in  1816,  but  not  published  until  1830, 
when  it  appeared  in  the  second  volume  of  Byron's  "Letters  and  Journals," 
edited  by  Moore.  Composed  at  the  same  time  as  Churchill's  "Grave,"  it  is 
closely  allied  to  it  in  purport  and  sentiment. 

"It  is  a  questioning  of  Death!  0  Death,  what  is  thy  sting?  There  is  an 
analogy  between  exile  and  death.  As  Churchill  lay  in  his  forgotten  grave 
at  Dover,  one  of  'many  millions  decomposed  to  clay,'  so  he  the  absent  is  dead 
to  the  absent,  and  the  absent  are  dead  to  him.  And  what  are  the  dead?  the 
aggregate  of  nothingness?  or  are  they  a  multitude  of  atoms  having  neither 
part  nor  lot  one  with  the  other?  There  is  no  solution  but  in  the  grave. 
Death  alone  can  unriddle  death.  The  poet's  questioning  spirit  would 
plunge  into  the  abyss  to  bring  back  the  answer." 


THE  POEMS  TO  AUGUSTA 

The  winter  of  1815-1816  was  an  eventful  and  tragic  one  in  the  life  of  Lord 
Byron.  Its  incidents  and  the  thoughts  and  emotions  aroused  in  him  at  that 
time  are  found  reflected  in  the  poems  written  both  then  and  afterward.  On 
December  10, 1815,  his  daughter,  Augusta  Ada,  was  born.  On  January  15, 
1816,  Lady  Byron  left  London  with  the  five-weeks-old  baby  for  a  visit  with 
her  father  and  mother  in  Leicestershire.  Then  followed  in  rapid  succes- 
sion the  events  which  culminated  in  the  deed  of  separation  signed  by  Lord 
and  Lady  Byron  on  April  21  and  22.    On  the  twenty-fifth,  he  sailed  for  Ost- 

D43 


'.. 


w 


I1 


J  I 

V 


\4 

i 


ft 


v< 


} 


V 

> 

< 


•  . 


\    \N 


\ 


?»UX    f  ^w/»*— A    ^    -U**-    *£ 


>*»^_      — ii» 


/ 


t~t^~^ 


rd&c 


%. 


W'/- 

'^-- 


*     >* 


"**^£> 


fit  y^±ji&hi£$^& j&  ^'  * 

f 


\\ 


*£ 


^t,  <^*~^> 


.'c~-/£~*S      &>*&'?     _ 


*i  ^C 


^i~*v 


A 


"^ 


•^t- 


^T?      ^™y 


—. 


^     -?**<.  t£_ 


/ 


<%U~. 


a^t_ 


K? 


/ 


4    «»J    &jvi^ 


< 


V 


/* 


POEMS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

end  and  never  again  saw  his  wife,  his  daughter,  or  his  sister.  After  a  visit 
to  Waterloo  he  went  by  way  of  the  Rhine  to  Geneva,  where  he  took  the  Villa 
Diodati,  on  the  Belle  Rive,  a  promontory  on  the  south  side  of  the  lake.  Here 
he  wrote  those  beautiful  and  moving  verses  which  immortalized  his  affec- 
tion and  love  for  the  one  human  being  whom  we  know  he  consistently 
loved  throughout  his  brief  and  turbulent  life. 

The  Hon.  Augusta  Byron  (born  1783,  died  1851)  was  the  daughter  of 
Captain  John  Byron  by  his  first  wife  Amelia  d'Arcy.  She  was  thus  Lord 
Byron's  half-sister  and  senior  by  five  years.  She  did  not  see  her  brother 
until  1802.  She  was  brought  up  by  her  grandmother,  the  Countess  of 
Holderness,  and  lived  with  other  relatives  until  her  marriage  in  1807  to  her 
first  cousin  Colonel  George  Leigh  of  the  Tenth  Dragoons.  Colonel  Leigh 
was  a  friend  of  the  Prince  Regent  and  well  known  in  fashionable  and  racing 
circles.  Mrs.  Leigh  was  long  attached  to  the  court,  moved  in  good  society, 
and  was  greatly  liked  by  those  who  knew  her  intimately.  Byron's  close  and 
devoted  friends,  Hobhouse  (Lord  Broughton),  the  Rev.  Francis  Hodgson, 
and  the  Rev.  William  Harness,  three  men  of  unimpeachable  character,  re- 
spected and  admired  her  to  the  last. 

From  1802  until  Byron's  death,  Mrs.  Leigh  took  in  him  not  merely  the 
interest  of  an  older  sister,  but  she  was,  as  Frances,  Lady  Shelley,  who  knew 
them  both  well,  says,  "like  a  mother  to  him."  From  the  end  of  1805,  with 
but  few  interruptions,  they  maintained  a  close  and  intimate  correspon- 
dence, and  visited  or  resided  at  various  times  in  each  other's  homes.  Her 
devotion  to  him  and  to  his  never  wavered  during  his  lifetime  or  hers,  and 
Byron  repaid  it  with  a  sincerity  of  feeling  he  never  showed  toward  any 
other  woman  whose  name  we  know.  His  letters  and  journals  are  filled 
with  references  to  her,  and  they  are  invariably  tender,  affectionate,  and 
fully  appreciative  of  all  she  had  done  for  him  and  all  she  had  felt  for  him 
in  the  great  crises  which  they  passed  through  together.  The  love  of  this 
brother  and  sister,  as  revealed  in  his  letters  and  poems,  is  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  elements  in  Byron's  life  and  character. 

One  of  the  first  presentation  copies  of  "Childe  Harold"  was  sent  to  her 
with  this  inscription :  "To  Augusta,  my  dearest  sister,  and  my  best  friend, 

CIS] 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

who  has  ever  loved  me  much  better  than  I  deserved,  this  volume  is  pre- 
sented by  her  father's  son,  and  most  affectionate  brother,  B." 

Byron's  animosity  toward  the  Earl  of  Carlisle  for  a  fancied  slight  at  the 
time  of  the  former's  taking  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Lords  is  well  known. 
Augusta  thought  her  brother  in  the  wrong  and  did  not  hesitate  to  tell  him 
so.  An  entry  in  his  "Journal,"  under  the  date  of  March  28,  1814,  shows 
something  of  the  influence  which  she  had  over  him  at  times:  "Augusta 
wants  me  to  make  it  up  with  Carlisle.  I  have  refused  every  body  else,  I 
can't  deny  her  anything;  so  I  must  e'en  do  it,  though  I  had  as  lief  'drink  up 
Eisel — eat  a  crocodile.'  " 

Augusta  watched  over  and  tended  Lady  Byron  during  the  latter's  con- 
finement, and  was  godmother  to  the  little  daughter,  Ada.  In  Byron's  last 
letter  to  Lady  Byron,  before  leaving  England,  he  wrote:  "I  have  just  parted 
from  Augusta,  almost  the  last  being  whom  you  have  left  me  to  part  with. 
...  If  any  accident  occurs  to  me,  be  kind  to  Augusta;  if  she  is  then  also 
nothing — to  her  children.  You  know  that  some  time  ago  I  made  my  will 
in  her  favour  and  her  children,  because  any  child  of  ours  was  provided  for 
by  other  and  better  means.  This  could  not  be  prejudice  to  you,  for  we  had 
not  then  differed,  and  even  now  is  useless  during  your  life  by  the  terms  of 
our  settlements.  Therefore, — be  kind  to  her,  for  never  has  she  acted  or 
spoken  towards  you  but  as  your  friend.  And  recollect,  that,  though  it  may 
be  an  advantage  to  you  to  have  lost  a  husband,  it  is  sorrow  to  her  to  have  the 
waters  now,  or  the  earth  hereafter,  between  her  and  her  brother.  It  may 
occur  to  your  memory  that  you  formerly  promised  me  this  much.  I  repeat 
it — for  deep  resentments  have  but  half  recollections.  Do  not  deem  this 
promise  cancell'd,  for  it  was  not  a  vow."  In  the  same  letter  he  requested 
that  all  news  and  tidings  of  his  daughter  be  sent  to  him  through  Mrs.  Leigh. 

On  April  16,  1816,  he  sent  a  note  to  Samuel  Rogers:  "My  sister  is  now 
with  me,  and  leaves  town  tomorrow;  we  shall  not  meet  again  for  some  time, 
at  all  events — if  ever;  and,  under  these  circumstances,  I  trust  to  stand  ex- 
cused to  you  and  Mr.  Sheridan  for  being  unable  to  wait  upon  him  this 
evening."  His  last  letter,  written  just  before  sailing,  was  addressed  to 
Augusta.    Years  later,  shortly  before  leaving  Italy  for  Greece,  he  said:  "To 

[16] 


POEMS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

me  she  was,  in  the  hour  of  need,  as  a  tower  of  strength.  Her  affection  was 
my  last  rallying  point,  and  is  now  the  only  bright  spot  that  the  horizon  of 
England  offers  to  my  view.  Augusta  knew  all  my  weaknesses,  but  she  had 
love  enough  to  bear  with  them.  She  has  given  me  much  good  advice,  and 
yet,  finding  me  incapable  of  following  it,  loved  and  pitied  me  the  more, 
because  I  was  erring.  This  is  true  affection,  and,  above  all,  true  Christian 
feeling."  Hodgson  states  that  a  pocket  Bible,  which  Augusta  had  presented 
her  brother,  was  among  the  books  which  Byron  always  kept  near  him. 

On  his  writing-table  after  his  death  there  was  found  the  unfinished  letter 
beginning:  "My  Dearest  Augusta:  I  received  a  few  days  ago  yours  and  Lady 
Byron's  report  of  Ada's  health."  His  last  articulate  words  were:  "My  sister 
— my  child." 

STANZAS  TO  AUGUSTA 

This  poem,  written  at  the  Villa  Diodati  on  July  24,  1816,  appeared  first  in 
"The  Prisoner  of  Chillon,  and  other  Poems"  (1816).  Its  place  in  that  vol- 
ume is  at  page  24,  where  it  is  called,  "Stanzas  to ,"  and  this  title  was 

retained  in  all  editions  until  1830.  Byron  wrote  to  Murray,  October  5, 1816: 
"Be  careful  in  printing  the  stanzas  beginning,  'Though  the  day  of  my 
destiny,'  etc.,  which  I  think  well  of  as  a  composition." 

In  the  third  canto  of  "Childe  Harold,"  Stanza  55,  Byron  again  refers  to 
Augusta's  loyalty  when  she  was  made  to  feel  the  rancor  of  his  enemies: 

"And  there  was  one  soft  breast,  as  hath  been  said, 
Which  unto  his  was  bound  by  stronger  ties 
Than  the  church  links  withal;  and,  though  unwed 
That  love  was  pure,  and,  far  above  disguise 
Had  stood  the  test  of  mortal  enmities 
Still  undivided,  and  cemented  more 
By  peril,  dreaded  most  in  female  eyes; 
But  this  was  firm,  and  from  a  foreign  shore 
Well  to  that  heart  might  his  these  absent  greetings  pour!" 

C173 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 


EPISTLE  TO  AUGUSTA 

This  also  was  written  at  Diodati  during  the  summer  of  1816.  It  was  sent  to 
Murray,  in  Shelley's  care,  in  a  volume  of  manuscript  (written  out  in  fair 
copy)  containing  "the  third  canto  of  'Childe  Harold,'  the  'Castle  of  Chillon,' 
etc.,  etc."  In  a  postscript  to  the  letter  of  August  28,  which  accompanied  the 
manuscript,  Byron  said :  "There  is  in  the  volume — an  epistle  to  Mrs.  Leigh 
— on  which  I  should  wish  her  to  have  her  opinion  consulted;  if  she  objects, 
of  course,  omit  it."  On  September  29,  he  again  cautioned  Murray  not  to 
forget  to  consult  Mrs.  Leigh  on  the  lines  to  her;  "they  must  not  be  published 
without  her  full  consent  and  approbation."  Mrs.  Leigh  was  at  first  disposed 
not  to  allow  either  the  "Stanzas"  or  the  "Epistle"  to  be  published,  but  finally 
limited  her  refusal  to  the  latter,  and  so  informed  her  brother.  "I  have  re- 
ceived a  letter,  from  Mrs.  L.,"  Byron  wrote  Murray,  October  5,  "in  which  she 
tells  me  that  she  has  decided  on  the  omission  of  the  lines  'an  Epistle,  etc' 
Upon  this  point  her  option  will  be  followed.  ...  As  I  have  no  copy  of  the 
'Epistle  to  Mrs.  L.,'  I  request  that  you  will  preserve  one  for  me  in  MS.,  for  I 
never  can  remember  a  line  of  that  nor  any  other  composition  of  mine.  .  .  . 
Recollect,  do  not  omit  a  line  of  the  MS.  sent  you  except  'The  Epistle.'  It  is 
too  late  for  me  to  start  at  Shadows.  If  you  like  to  have  the  originals,  Mrs.  L. 
will,  I  daresay,  send  them  to  you;  they  are  all  in  the  box." 

Mrs.  Leigh's  letters  to  Murray,  dated  November  1  and  November  8,  reveal 
her  anxiety  to  do  nothing  that  would  offend  or  hurt  her  brother  or  Lady 
Byron. 

"When  you  were  so  good  as  to  call  upon  me  at  St.  James's  and  told  me  of 
the  arrival  of  the  canto,  and  some  lines  addressed  to  me,  which  were  to  be 
published  or  not  as  I  liked,  I  answered,  instinctively  almost — 'Whatever  is 
addressed  to  me  do  not  publish.'  I  felt  so  forcibly  that  such  things  could 
only  serve  to  me  faire  valoir  aux  depens  de  sa  Femme — besides  1000  other 

D83 


^7^t>t^ 


£^*~^s 


/i^. 


-.^.S 


4 


>C>v^?  y^'rVTj  fot^&k   p*^ 


.£.  A.  *-»* 


V 

* 


*0  XJ ./~f^f-j£.s.~~£/- ^  #S. 


^*-»«*-j^ 


~7 


> 


7 


**%    fr~* 


X 


* 
b 


M      * 


*  ♦ 


V*v* 


*&% 


■ .jk 


y<*   //}<"< *u^><f — &Lt 


<V^_J» 


I. 


'  - 


V        < 


t    *■    _ 


*Zm&       n.n^T^ 


r'y        I 


A 


\ 


POEMS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

reasons,  which  I  can  better  explain  whenever  I  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
you.  .  .  .  You  must  know  how  I  have  suffered  in  the  late  melancholy  pro- 
ceedings. I  have,  I  can  truly  say,  felt  for  both,  and  done  my  utmost  and,  to 
the  best  of  my  judgment,  all  I  could,  and  such  reflections  must  be  my  only 
consolation.   Yet  I  am  so  afraid  of  his  being  hurt. 

"After  reflecting  on  every  possibility  and  probability,  I  do  think  the  least 
objectionable  line  will  be  to  let  them  be  published,  for  perhaps,  on  the  other 
hand,  considering  his  positive  commands  to  you  and  a  good  many  other 
etceteras,  he  might  be  provoked  into  something  worse, — representing  me 
as  a  Victim  of  slander  and  bitterness  to  the  other  party,  and  in  short  I  hope  I 
decide  for  the  best." 

Thus  it  was  that  the  "Stanzas"  alone  were  published  at  this  time.  The 
"Epistle"  remained  in  manuscript  until  its  publication  in  Moore's  "Letters 
and  Journals  of  Lord  Byron"  in  1830  (Vol.  II,  pp.  38-41).  In  a  notice  of 
Moore's  work  in  the  Quarterly  Review  the  following  year,  the  reviewer 
recorded  his  opinion  that  in  the  whole  body  of  Lord  Byron's  poetry  there 
was  nothing  "more  mournfully  and  desolately  beautiful"  than  these  verses. 

In  a  volume  destined  for  the  hands  of  book-lovers  and  lovers  of  poetry, 
it  is  wholly  unnecessary  to  enlarge  upon  the  literary  and  poetical  worth  of 
these  poems.  The  verses  carry  their  own  message:  they  require  no  inter- 
pretation by  critic  nor  criticism  by  rhetorician.  Their  splendid  music  is 
apparent  to  reader  or  listener,  and  no  man  of  taste  needs  the  help  of 
metrical  experts  to  appreciate  their  beauties.  There  is  really  "nothing  to  be 
said  about  great  poetry  except  that  it  is  great  and  beautiful." 

If  poetry  made  exactly  the  same  appeal  to  every  one,  it  would  be  of  little 
value  to  the  world.  Great  poetry  endures  because  it  carries  an  infinite 
variety  of  message  and  meaning  to  those  who  read  it.  It  is  really  a  matter 
of  small  moment  whether  or  not  a  poet  shall  "live  for  all  time";  but  it  is  of 
vital  importance  that  in  all  times  and  ages  there  shall  be  poets  in  whose 
verse  men  may  find  the  matchless  and  melodious  expression  of  thoughts, 
feelings,  emotions,  and  moods  which  have  been  theirs  individually. 

Byron  is  notably  a  man's  poet  in  spite  of  superficial  indications  to  the 


C193 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS  OF  LORD  RYRON 

contrary.  The  real  heart  and  core  of  his  greatest  verse  is  masculine,  and 
sensitively  masculine.  No  normal,  active,  mentally  alert  man  has  reached 
middle  life  without,  in  varying  degree,  having  lived  through  some  crises 
such  as  Byron  lived  through,  and  without  having  shared  at  least  some  of 
Byron's  moods,  thoughts,  and  passions,  but  few  have  had  the  power  to  de- 
scribe or  express  these  things  either  in  verse  or  in  prose.  Byron  had  that 
power,  and  he  used  it  with  wonderful  and  supremely  beautiful  results. 


C203 


rTn, 


'-l^  €_- 


*A*~<     tf *A£     ff-   ^^       £Ca«,  «A  4?S~ 

/£  ^A  vjt*/-  AA'  / A~y~s '^A AUu  _ 

0  ^m  &  „*^  ^/,  *./„  /^  *A^  - 

#J-#L  ^C  d~2'ZTJC  '&  #L  £y^ 


d  ^  y^^rffe^g^8 


*-  ***  A^-' 


A^A^r   _    ^       A  &*       ^Q  **A       i*~/^A' 

sifi^^S  »A^  >^*~L   pu^-  £AK^~^c'A>   AA  A  A'p*~ey 
/zL  aL$-  t^o  vA~~sA-  ?ei  —    t~et--  y  W.  A*t-£  , 

^  "^/^sf-m^^  y7  <A~*~4   AA£ Ae^-i^ 


6%        fi.+*LC,  en^sCwlL.e*/.         <s>t—       C*-~~Ar**~*-?J2^u- 

1+-  •  — ** — 


■ 


S^ 


v      .   v-.^  h      J*  •  .         ^  'A 

r  /     /W'^A'  £Ae*A*  ^A-A-  &A-  yr 


^  A"  ^^  ^^  w^  ^    ^><^" 


'. 


r 

9/    /C^_      »~Wl^£      e±Jh    <y^     SA*~    *J-  ft* 


A  *- 


:  fadfc  ~jl  _  m .  &r ,», ag£ ./ g  ^4^: 

A. 


;£_>■ 


•»•■•-■  ■ 


jL  -I/  ?S'   ~£*  *'~r*^\  *?%  " 


A&jdteZF'fr  y^X-  .„ '  t^  *-~&6£/«^. 


■fit 


,<f.  .u^       5^1>     "~~^  *~*P  ^    *^~t? 

^£Y  /£*  ^^ 


^j»C 


# 


*  ■     ' 

m  ■■•<.*, 


■-&.*•  ^  /Q6-         <^^s- 


/v. 


/^      ^*,       *~p        *.*—£     fa^,*t    —  *~* S     -7^*~^    -^fx^     ^ 


^-x^_ 


X 

^ 


gfc/  ^^*&~   h^u    *-^^>^_ vftr  ^5  ^*-    ^^^c  ^j.  <*>  % 


■ 


7 


41 


^X.      i. 


"i-K^c- 


• 


*T^-^_ 


* 


31 


k.    y>yggij 


t     &Zi~ju 


* 


■        m 


s 


■--«-^*t-v  /~t  &J~ 


£**»-»^<     __ 


«    * 


X~ 


^L/»/t 


'P***-^-. 


r  ) 


Itiv 


"^^^^^y, 


ft  i 


Ait**.-     U*£   >^   ^*^^C 


*7 


=*y><-       **6r     ^^     #*-*     ^'  ^*^       ^^^f 


&~  ^  U_«-*~^  ^-4'^r-  yu< 


4-~ 


*y 


LETTERS 


,-rl 


u 


l***"*** 


LETTERS 

So  far  as  cau                  I,  only  one  of  the  follov  d  in 

print,  a                      I  y  a  few  para  gra  phs  we  re  pu  bl  M  urray 

edit                             n  question  is  the  long  and  ssed  to 

R.  B.  Hoppner,  March  31, 1820.   Although  these  left  part 

unrelated,  each  will  be  found  to  have  some  point  of  in  j  astifies 
its  printing.   The  originals  of  all  of  them  are  in  Mr.  Bil 

H3T3AJIRJ  a  8A  kohyh    --.„  frigate,  off  Ushant 
fd  bsdaHdsq  flqBi^odiiI  u  mrrt     July  7th  1811 

Mr.  Cawthorn :  lA^mA  .a 

I  have  been  scold  u  (like  almost  all  Scolders)  without  a  reason,  for 

I  found  parcels,  one  at  Athens,  &  the  other  at  Malta  on  my  way 

down.    In  a  few  days  on  our  arrival  at  Portsmouth,  wl  pect  to 

make  about  the  10th,  I  shall  send  this  off,  however  aitside 

will  apprize  you  of  the  day.    I  shall  thence  \  '  expect 

3rou  to  pay  nu  I  either  at  Dorant's  or  Reddish's  H- 

the  Satirt  i  s  wered  your  purpoi 

nine.    I  have  a  poem  in  the  same  style,  &  much  about 

same  length  which  I  intend  as  a  kind  of  Sequel  to  the  former;  it  is  ready  for 

publication,  but  as  my  scrawl  is  impenetrable  to  Printers,  &  the  Manuscript 

is  a  good  deal  blotted  with  Alterations  etc,  you  must  have  an  Amanuensis 

'o  copy  it  out  fair  on  my  arrival.    1  suppose  you  have  not  lost  by  the 

it  my  only  motive  king  is  a  wish  that  you  may  not;  the  present 

•kali  be  yours  for  the  risk  of  printing,  as  the  last  was.    But  neither  you  nor 

pose  because  the  first  has  succeeded  tolerably,  a  second  will  have 

the  sam  •  fate,  though  it.  s  similar.    However,  it  will  serve  to  make  a 

C23: 


"PLAY!"    BYRON  AS  A  CRICKETER 

From  a  lithograph  published  by 

E.  Knight 


I     ■  % 


LETTERS 

So  far  as  can  be  learned,  only  one  of  the  following  letters  has  appeared  in 
print,  and  of  that  only  a  few  paragraphs  were  published  in  the  last  Murray 
edition.  The  letter  in  question  is  the  long  and  interesting  one  addressed  to 
R.  B.  Hoppner,  March  31, 1820.  Although  these  letters  are  for  the  most  part 
unrelated,  each  will  be  found  to  have  some  point  of  interest  which  justifies 
its  printing.   The  originals  of  all  of  them  are  in  Mr.  Bixby's  collection. 

Volage  Frigate,  off  Ushant 

July  7th  18H 
Mr.  Cawthorn : 

I  have  been  scolding  you  (like  almost  all  Scolders)  without  a  reason,  for 

I  found  your  two  parcels,  one  at  Athens,  &  the  other  at  Malta  on  my  way 

down.    In  a  few  days  on  our  arrival  at  Portsmouth,  which  we  expect  to 

make  about  the  10th,  I  shall  send  this  off,  however  the  date  on  the  outside 

will  apprize  you  of  the  day.    I  shall  thence  proceed  to  town  where  I  expect 

you  to  pay  me  a  visit  either  at  Dorant's  or  Reddish's  Hotels  in  Albemarle  or 

St  James's  Street.   I  hope  the  Satire  has  answered  your  purpose,  &  of  course 

it  has  answered  mine.    I  have  a  poem  in  the  same  style,  &  much  about  the 

same  length  which  I  intend  as  a  kind  of  Sequel  to  the  former;  it  is  ready  for 

publication,  but  as  my  scrawl  is  impenetrable  to  Printers,  &  the  Manuscript 

is  a  good  deal  blotted  with  Alterations  etc,  you  must  have  an  Amanuensis 

ready  to  copy  it  out  fair  on  my  arrival.    I  suppose  you  have  not  lost  by  the 

last,  but  my  only  motive  for  asking  is  a  wish  that  you  may  not;  the  present 

shall  be  yours  for  the  risk  of  printing,  as  the  last  was.    But  neither  you  nor 

I  must  suppose  because  the  first  has  succeeded  tolerably,  a  second  will  have 

the  same  fate,  though  its  style  is  similar.    However,  it  will  serve  to  make  a 

C23H 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

tolerable  volume  with  the  other,  with  which  it  is  in  some  degree  connected. 

The  Nature  of  it  I  will  explain  more  fully  when  I  see  you.    If  you  see  Mr. 

Dallas  or  other  of  my  acquaintance,  you  will  present  my  Compts.    I  remain 

Yr  obed*  Servt. 

Byron. 
To  Mr.  Cawthorn 

Cockspur  Street 

London. 

P.  S.    Accept  my  excuse  for  blaming  you  for  what  you  did  not  deserve.    I 
am  sorry  for  it;  the  fault  lay  with  my  Maltese  Correspondents. 

James  Cawthorn,  to  whom  this  letter  is  addressed,  was  the  publisher  of  "English 
Bards,  and  Scotch  Reviewers.  A  Satire"  (March,  1809).  The  poem  which  Byron 
mentions  as  having  ready  for  publication  was  the  "Hints  from  Horace,"  which  he  had 
recently  written  at  the  Franciscan  Convent  in  Athens.  "I  have  an  imitation  of  Horace's 
'Art  of  Poetry'  ready  for  Cawthorn,"  he  had  informed  Dallas  on  June  28.  Dallas  called 
at  Reddish's  Hotel  July  15, 1811,  and  received  the  manuscript,  but  was  not  at  all  enthu- 
siastic over  it.  He  asked  Byron  if  that  was  all  that  he  had  written  while  away;  where- 
upon Byron  produced  the  first  two  cantos  of  "Childe  Harold."  Very  much  against  his 
wishes,  he  was  persuaded  by  his  friends  to  publish  the  latter  instead  of  the  former, 
with  what  results  we  all  know.  But  to  the  end  of  his  life  Byron  insisted  on  regarding 
the  "Hints  from  Horace"  as  one  of  the  best  things  he  had  ever  done,  whereas  it  is  by 
general  agreement  one  of  the  very  worst.  It  was  not  published  until  1831,  seven  years 
after  his  death. 


4  Bennet  Street 

July  13th  [1813] 
Sir 

Prince  Korlovsky  informed  me  a  few  daj^s  ago  that  he  had  reason  to 
think  by  a  proper  application  to  you  I  should  obtain  a  passage  in  the  ship 
which  is  to  convey  him  to  the  Mediterranean.  I  confess  that  I  did  not  fore- 
see any  impropriety  or  difficulty  in  this,  as  it  had  already  been  my  good 
fortune  to  obtain  the  same  favour  several  times  during  my  last  absence 
from  England,  by  the  kindness  of  some  whose  influence  was  much  inferior 
to  your  own.    But  as  I  had  not  the  honour  of  your  acquaintance  &  certainly 

C24] 


LETTERS  OF  LORD  RYRON 

not  the  slightest  pretension  to  intrude  upon  you  for  the  mere  purpose  of 
serving  myself,  I  thought  the  application  would  come  with  a  better  grace 
from  one  whom  you  would  have  greater  pleasure  in  obliging.  Though  he 
has  failed,  which  does  not  make  my  own  prospect  of  success  very  promis- 
ing, may  I  now  venture  to  say  that  by  obtaining  for  me  a  passage  in  any 
ship  of  war  bound  to  the  Mediterranean  at  or  nearly  the  same  time  with  the 
Boyne,  you  will  confer  upon  me  the  last — indeed  I  might  add — the  only 
favour  which  can  be  rendered  me  in  this  country.  If  I  am  wrong  or  infor- 
mal in  the  present  application  you  will  excuse  an  unintentional  offence. 
I  have  the  honour  to  be, 

Sir, 

Yr  most  obed1- 

humble  Ser*- 

Ryron 
J.  W.  Croker,  Esq., 
&c,  &c,  &c. 

From  Jul}'  until  October  in  1813,  Byron's  letters  are  full  of  references  to  some  plan 
he  had  of  going  abroad,  probably  to  the  East  or  to  Italy.  On  the  same  date  as  this 
letter  to  Croker,  the  Secretary  of  the  Admiralty,  Byron  wrote  to  Moore :  "I  want  to  get 
away,  but  find  difficulty  in  compassing  a  passage  in  a  ship  of  war."  This  was,  however, 
arranged  for  him.  At  Croker's  request,  Captain  Carlton  of  the  Boyne,  who  had  just 
been  ordered  to  reenforce  Sir  Edward  Pellew  in  the  Mediterranean,  had  consented  to 
take  Byron  in  his  cabin  on  that  voyage.  Byron  acknowledged  Croker's  courtesy  in  a 
letter  dated  August  2, 1813.  But  on  August  22  we  find  him  writing  to  Moore :  "All  this 
time  you  wonder  I  am  not  gone;  so  do  I;  but  the  accounts  of  the  plague  are  very  per- 
plexing— not  so  much  for  the  thing  itself  as  the  quarantine  established  in  all  ports,  and 
from  all  places,  even  from  England." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  a  very  different  kind  of  "plague"  that  was  hindering  his 
lordship  from  sailing  on  the  projected  voyage.  A  passage  in  this  same  letter  to  Moore 
tells  the  real  reason:  "I  have  said  nothing,  either,  of  the  brilliant  sex;  but  the  fact  is,  I 
am  at  this  moment  in  a  far  more  serious,  and  entirely  new,  scrape  than  any  of  the  last 
twelve  months, — and  that  is  saying  a  good  deal.  It  is  unlucky  that  we  can  neither  live 
with  nor  without  these  women."  Ernest  Hartley  Coleridge  says  that  Lady  Frances 
Wedderburn  Webster  was  the  lady  with  whom  Byron  was  at  this  moment  so  infatu- 
ated. But  this  is  scarcely  credible,  for  less  than  two  weeks  after  the  date  of  the  letter 
to  Moore,  Byron  is  congratulating  his  friend  Webster  on  the  birth  of  a  son  and  prom- 
ising to  stand  as  godfather  to  the  child. 

125-2 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

In  the  middle  of  September,  he  asked  Murray  to  "enquire  after  any  ship  with  a 
convoy  taking  passengers  and  get  me  one  if  possible."  Nothing  came  of  this,  however, 
and  he  remained  in  England. 

On  November  8,  came  the  well-known  letter  to  his  sister :  "I  have  only  time  to  say 
that  I  shall  write  tomorrow,  and  that  my  present  and  long  silence  has  been  occasioned 
by  a  thousand  things  (with  which  you  are  not  concerned) .  It  is  not  I>  C.  nor  O.,  but 
perhaps  you  may  guess,  and,  if  you  do,  do  not  tell.  You  do  not  know  what  mischief  your 
being  with  me  might  have  prevented.  You  shall  hear  from  me  tomorrow;  in  the  mean- 
time, don't  be  alarmed.  I  am  in  no  immediate  peril."  In  his  "Journal"  for  November 
17,  there  is  this  entry :  "Not  a  word  from.  .  .  .  Have  they  set  out  from  .  .  .  ?  or  has  my 
last  precious  epistle  fallen  into  the  lion's  jaws?  If  so — I  must  clap  on  'my  musty 
morion'  and  'hold  out  my  iron.'  I  am  out  of  practice — but  I  won't  begin  at  Manton's 
now.    Besides,  I  would  not  return  his  shot." 

The  contemplated  journey  abroad  did  not  occur,  and  no  one  has  yet  successfully 
identified  the  lady  who  prevented  it,  notwithstanding  the  labored  efforts  of  Mr.  Edg- 
cumbe  and  his  echo,  Mr.  Gribble. 


March  2nd,  1814. 
Dear  Webster: 

I  am  sorry  to  say  that  in  consequence  of  a  disappointment  for  the  pres- 
ent in  the  amount  of  the  remittance  I  expected,  I  am  obliged  to  decline  ad- 
vancing the  sum  which  I  would  readily  have  done  had  it  been  within  my 
power.  With  regard  to  joining  you  as  a  security  I  should  have  no  objection, 
but  on  the  terms  &  with  persons  to  whom  you  have  applied,  I  should  only 
become  instrumental  in  involving  both,  without  any  permanent  benefit  to 
yourself.  I  speak  from  experience,  as  my  own  difficulties  have  arisen  from 
similar  sources.  Your  own  agent  could  surely  direct  you  to  more  respect- 
able lenders  and  better  terms,  and  as  you  must  have  security  to  give  on  your 
own  property,  I  should  think  the  business  might  be  arranged  without  your 
having  recourse  to  the  Advertisers  in  papers.  I  regret  very  much  that  it  is 
not  in  my  power  to  advance  this  myself  &  I  think  you  know  that  I  would 
have  done  so  had  it  been  practicable. 

Very  truly  yrs,  B. 

James  Wedderburn  Webster  (1789-1840)  was  the  author  of  "Waterloo,  and  other 
Poems"  (1816) .    He  was  with  Byron  possibly  at  Cambridge,  and  certainly  at  Athens  in 

C*0 


LORD  BYRON 
From  a  drawing  by  Georpe  Henrv  Harlow 


OF  LORD  BYRON 

lurray  ti  nip  ■with  a 

ig  pa— cngcrs  and  get  iv 

say 

tomoi: 

'.sand  things  (with  \J  C.  nor  O.,  but 

may  guess,  low  what  mi:            \our 

ith  me  might!  I.    You  shall  he                mie  ton.                            tan- 

.  don't  be  alarmed     I  am  mi  n«  immediate  peril."    In  his  "Jon                            iiber 

here  is  this  entry:  "Not  a  •■  .  .  Have  they  set  out  from  .  .  .  ?  or  has  my 

last  precious  cpistl.  n's  jaws?     Jt  so— I  must  clap  on  'my  musty 

ou'  and  'hold  ot  out  of  |                      t  I  won't  begin  at  Man  ton's 

now.    Besides,  I  would  p  hot." 

The  contemplated  journc  d  did  not  occur,  and  no  one  has  yet  successfully 

identified  the  lady  who  pre  ^withstanding  the  labored  efforts  of  Mr.  Edg- 
cuml                            ; 

AOHfH  QflOJ 
wohsH  /ni'iH  9^i»9t)  yd  «niweib  n  moii 

14. 
Dear  Webster: 

J  am  sorry  to  say  that  in  consequence  of  a  disappointment  I  pres- 

ent in  the  amount  of  the  remittance  I  expected,  I  am  ohliged  to  decline  ad- 
vancing the  sum  which  I  would  readily  have  done  had  it  been  within  my 
power.    With  regard  to  joining  you  as  a  security  I  should  hav  iection, 

but  on  the  terms  &  with  persons  to  whom  you  have  applied,  I  should  only 
ttrumental  in  involving  both,  without  any  permanent  benefit,  to. 
f.    I  speak  from  experience,  as  my  own  difticui !  risen  from 

similar  sources.  Your  own  agent  could  surely  direct  you  to  more  respect- 
able lenders  er  terms,  and  as  you  must  have  security  to  give  on  your 
own  property,  1  should  think  the  business  might  be  arranged  without 
having  recourse  to  the  Advertisers  in  papers.  I  regret  very  much  that  it  is 
not  in  my  power  to  advance  this  myself  &  I  think  you  know  that  I  would 
e  done  so  had  it  b  icticable. 

Very  truly  yrs,  B. 

James  Wedderburn  Webster  (1789-1840)  was  the  author  of  "Waterloo,  and  other 
ns"  (1816).    He  was  wiUi  Byron  possibly  at  Cambridge,  and  certainly  at  A 


kftm  _ 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

1810.  In  that  year  he  married  Lady  Frances  Caroline  Annesley.  In  1813,  Byron  lent 
him  £1000.  Moore  says :  "W.  W.  owes  Lord  Byron,  £1000,  and  does  not  seem  to  have 
the  slightest  intention  of  paying  him."  Lady  Frances  separated  from  her  husband,  and 
in  1823  Byron  endeavored  to  reconcile  them. 


Venice,  Nov.  20th,  1817. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  shall  endeavor  to  keep  the  conditions  of  the  lease  and  I  had  already 

decided  to  retain  in  my  service  the  man  whom  you  left  in  care  of  the  place. 

I  took  the  liberty  of  sending  to  request  that  you  would  accept  cash  for  the 

draft  immediately  as  I  was  making  up  some  accounts,  and  also  on  account 

of  the  exchange  as  I  wished  to  draw  before  it  lowered  still  farther  which  I 

understand  will  shortly  be  the  case.    I  have  sent  you  the  publications  you 

honoured  me  by  requesting,  and  also  the  last  poem  of  my  friend  Moore  and 

one  by  Coleridge — which  you  have  perhaps  not  seen — and  of  which  I  beg 

your  acceptance  as  I  have  other  copies  of  the  same  works  and  these  can  be 

spared  without  the  least  inconvenience  to  myself.    If  you  have  not  read 

"Tales  of  my  Landlord"  I  have  duplicates  and  a  set  is  at  your  service — they 

are  well  worth  the  perusal — and  I  will  send  them  whenever  you  like.    I 

have  the  honour  to  be 

Very  truly  your  obedient  &  faithful  svt., 

Byron 
To 

R.  B.  Hoppner,  (Esq.) 

Richard  Belgrave  Hoppner  (1786-1872)  was  the  second  son  of  John  Hoppner,  R.  A. 
He  was  appointed  English  Consul  at  Venice  in  October,  1814.  The  Shelleys  and  Byron 
saw  much  of  him  and  his  charming  wife  during  their  stays  in  Venice.  Byron  had  a 
great  respect  for  Hoppner.  He  told  the  Countess  of  Blessington  that  Hoppner  "was  a 
good  listener,  and  his  remarks  were  acute  and  original;  he  is  besides  a  thoroughly  good 
man;  and  I  know  he  was  in  earnest  when  he  gave  me  his  opinions." 


[283 


LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 


Venice,  Nov.  28,  1819. 
Dear  Sir 

In  this  remote  corner  of  Italy  where  we  have  neither  books  or  booksel- 
lers I  am  as  ignorant  of  the  affairs  of  the  literary  world  as  a  Siberian  bear. 
The  only  oracle  that  gives  me  some  scanty  hints  is  Galignani's  Messenger, 
but  as  I  do  not  see  a  review  I  cannot  be  said  to  know  the  doings  of  the  [il- 
legible] .  Now  and  then  I  read  a  stray  leaf  filled  with  the  Boetian  sounds  of 
some  croaking  Scot  prosing  about  the  morals  of  the  Don.  The  vile  squeak 
of  the  Italian  fiddle  is  music  compared  with  the  lingua  Scotorum  pro- 
nounced ore  rotundo  by  some  Edinburgh  Galen.  The  sound  is  tinkling  in 
my  ears  whenever  I  read  the  lucubrations  of  one  of  those  modern  Athen- 
ians. Write  soon.  Perhaps  you  had  best  answer  to  me  here  (Venice  Poste 
Restante)  it  will  come  quicker  thus. 

Believe  me  ever  &  truly  yrs 

Byron 
To  the  Hon.  Douglas  Kinnaird 

Pall  Mall  London 


Ravenna, 

March  31st,  1820. 
Dear  Hoppner, 

Laziness  has  kept  me  from  answering  your  letter.  It  is  an  inveterate 
vice — which  grows  stronger,  and  I  feel  it  in  my  pen  at  this  moment. 

With  regard  to  Mr.  Gnoatto,  I  doubt  that  the  Chevalier  is  too  honest  a 
man  to  make  a  good  lawyer.  Castelli  is  a  bustling,  sly,  sharp  [illegible]  & 
will  be  more  likely  to  make  the  rascal  wince.  But  I  mean  to  do  thus, — that 
is  to  say — with  your  approbation.  You  will  inform  Madame  Mocenigo,  that 
till  Mr.  Gnoatto's  money  is  paid,  /  shall  deduct  that  sum  from  her  rent  in 
June  till  she  compels  her  Servant  to  pay  it.    She  may  make  a  cause  of  it,  if 

£293 


LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

she  likes;  so  will  I  &  carry  it  through  all  the  tribunals,  so  as  to  give  her  as 
many  years  work  of  it  as  she  pleases.  At  the  same  time  I  will  prosecute  him 
also.  I  am  not  even  sure  that  I  will  pay  her  at  all  till  she  compels  her 
Scoundrelly  dependant  to  do  me  justice,  which  a  word  from  her  would  do. 
All  this  you  had  better  let  her  know  as  soon  as  can  be. 

By  the  way,  I  should  like  to  have  my  Gondola  sold  for  what  it  will  bring, 
and  do  you  carry  money  to  the  account  of  expenses.  If  Mother  Mocenigo 
does  as  she  ought  to  do,  I  may  perhaps  give  up  her  house  and  pay  her  rent 
into  the  bargain.  If  not,  I  '11  pay  nothing  and  we  '11  go  to  law — I  loves  a 
"lite." 

What  you  tell  me  of  Mrs.  Strephon  is  very  amusing,  but  all  private  mat- 
ters must  be  superseded  at  present  by  the  public  plots,  and  so  forth.  I  won- 
der what  it  will  all  end  in.  I  should  probably  have  gone  to  England  for  the 
Coronation  but  for  my  wife.  I  don't  wish  to  walk  in  such  company,  under 
present  circumstances.  Ravenna  continues  much  the  same  as  I  described 
it.  Conversazioni  all  Lent,  and  much  better  ones  than  any  at  Venice.  There 
are  small  games  at  hazard,  that  is,  Faro,  where  nobody  can  point  more  than 
a  shilling  or  two;  other  Card  tables,  and  as  much  talk  and  Coffee  as  you 
please.  Everybody  does  and  says  what  they  please,  and  I  do  not  recollect 
any  disagreeable  events,  except  being  three  times  falsely  accused  of  flirta- 
tion, and  once  being  robbed  of  six  sixpences  by  a  nobleman  of  the  city,  a 
count  Bozzi.  I  did  not  suspect  the  illustrious  delinquent;  but  the  Countess 
Vitellani  and  the  Marquess  Loratelli  told  me  of  it  directly,  and  also  that  it 
was  a  way  he  had  of  filching  money  when  he  saw  it  before  him;  but  I  did 
not  ax  him  for  the  cash,  but  contented  myself  with  telling  him  that  if  he  did 
it  again,  I  should  anticipate  the  law. 

There  is  to  be  a  theatre  in  April,  and  a  fair,  and  an  Opera,  and  another 
opera  in  June,  besides  the  fine  weather  of  Nature's  giving,  and  the  rides  in 
the  Forest  of  Pine! 

Augustine  overturned  the  carriage  a  fortnight  ago  and  smashed  it  and 
himself  and  me  and  Tita  and  the  horses  into  a  temporary  hodge-podge.  He 
pleaded  against  the  horses,  but  it  was  his  own  bad  driving.  Nobody  was 
hurt,  a  few  slight  bruises;  the  escape  was  tolerable,  being  between  a  river 

C303 


LORD  BYRON  AT  THE  AGE  OF  THIRTY-ONE 
From  an  engraving  in  stipple  by  E.  Scriven  after  a  drawing  by 
George  Henrv  Harlow 


rough  as  to  give  her  as 

;ecute  him 
her 

. 

indola  sold  U  vill  bring, 

!  carry  count  of  expenses.    If  uigo 

perhaps  give  up  her  house  and  pay  her  r 
nothing  and  we  '11  go  to  law — I  loves  a 

you  tell  me  of  M  <m  using,  but  all  private  mat- 

must  be  superseded  at  p  plots,  and  so  forth.    I  won- 

at  it  will  all  end  i  gone  to  England  for  the 

T/iO-YTaiHT  K)  30A  3HT  1/   /oh /a  (THnjph  company,  under 
i<\  3«iwBib  c  wi;;  a'ififjt  :j  v\  ^iq.|h%  ni  jmi/in-.rr  a$  nr^aas  j  described 

riH<i     ^ioo  There 

renobo         :.  point 

a  shilling  or  two,  ot  ird  tables,  and  as  much  talk  and  Coffee  as  you 

please.    Everybo  ,  what  they  please,  and  I  do  not  ri 

any  di;  falsely  accused  of  flirt* 

i 
elinquent;  bu 

that  it 
tini;  but  I  did 
not  ax  him  for  the  ted  myself  with  telling  him  that  if  he  did 

i.  1  should  anticipate  the  law. 

a  fair,  and  an  Opera,  and  another 
f  Nature's  giving,  and  the  rides  in 
Pine. 

ige  a  fortnight  ago  and  smashed  it  and 
fie  and  1  1  the  horses  into  a  term  podge.    He 

hut  it  was  his  own  bad  driving,    Nobody  was 
ape  was  tolerable,  being  between  a 
C30: 


& 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

on  one  side  and  a  steep  bank  on  the  other.  I  was  luckily  alone,  Allegra 
being  with  Madame  Guiccioli.  With  n^  best  respects  to  Mrs.  Hoppner  be- 
lieve me  ever  and  very  truly  yours 

Byron. 

P.  S.  Could  you  give  me  an  Item  of  what  books  remain  at  Venice?  I  don't 
want  them,  but  wish  to  know  whether  the  few  that  are  not  here  are  there, 
and  were  not  lost  by  the  way. 

I  hope  and  trust  you  have  got  all  your  wine  safe,  and  that  [it]  is  drink- 
able. 

Allegra  is  prettier  I  think,  but  as  obstinate  as  a  Mule,  and  as  ravenous  as 
a  Vulture.  Health  good  to  judge  [from]  the  Complexion,  temper  tolerable, 
but  for  vanity  and  pertinacity.  She  thinks  herself  handsome  and  will  do  as 
she  pleases. 


Ravenna  April  2nd,  1820 
My  Dear  Douglas 

Pray  give  the  Honorable  Member  the  enclosed  song  and  tell  him  I  know 
he  will  never  forgive  me,  but  I  could  not  help  him  &  his  ragmuffins  for  put- 
ting him  in  quod.  Hang  that  set  of  parsons.  I  know  the  hypocrites — their 
carnal  appetite  is  fiercer  than  that  of  a  he  goat  &  the  Don  is  as  innocent  as  a 
babe  of  such  sins  as  they  commit  daily  under  cover  of  the  cassocks.  Per- 
haps the  attack  is  written  by  H as  a  reward  for  having  paid  his  debts 

and  traveled  all  night  to  beg  his  mother-in-law  (by  his  own  desire)  to  let 
him  marry  her  daughter,  though  I  had  never  seen  her  in  my  life — it  suc- 
ceeded. But  such  are  mankind.  The  moral  Clytemnestra  is  not  very  com- 
municative of  her  tidings,  but  there  will  come  a  day  of  reckoning.  I  am  all 
for  moderation,  [with]  which  profession  of  faith  I  beg  leave  to  conclude  by 

C32] 


LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

wishing  that  those  sanctimonious  judges  who  throw  stones  at  me  may  find 

a  home  in  a  place  painted  in  Michel  Angelo's  Last  Judgment  in  the  Sistine 

Chapel  which  would  just  suit  them. 

ever  yours  very  truly 

Byron. 
Hon.  Douglas  Kinnaird, 

Pall  Mall  London 

The  Honorable  Douglas  James  William  Kinnaird  (1788-1830)  was  one  of  Byron's 
most  intimate  friends.  They  were,  among  other  things,  fellow-members  of  the  man- 
aging committee  of  Drury  Lane  Theater.  Byron  called  him  his  "trusty  and  trustworthy 
trustee  and  banker,  and  crown  and  sheet  anchor."  It  was  at  Kinnaird's  suggestion  that 
he  wrote  the  "Hebrew  Melodies"  and  the  "Monody  on  Sheridan." 

The  "Honorable  Member"  referred  to  in  the  letter  was  Hobhouse.  His  pamphlet, 
"A  Defence  of  the  People"  (1819),  was  followed  in  the  same  year  by  "A  Trifling  Mis- 
take," which  was  declared  by  the  House  of  Commons  to  be  a  breach  of  privilege,  and 
he  was  committed  to  Newgate  Prison.  The  death  of  George  III,  and  the  dissolution  of 
Parliament,  set  him  free.  He  won  a  seat  in  the  Commons  as  a  member  for  Westminster, 
with  Sir  Francis  Burdett  as  his  colleague,  and  represented  it  for  thirteen  years.  Byron 
had  also  sent  Murray  a  copy  of  the  Lampoon  which  he  had  written  on  Hobhouse's 
political  difficulties,  and  the  phrasing  is  a  trifle  clearer  in  the  letter  to  Murray:  "Pray 
give  Hobhouse  the  enclosed  song,  and  tell  him  I  know  he  will  never  forgive  me,  but  I 
could  not  help  it.  I  am  so  provoked  with  him  and  his  ragamuffins  for  putting  him  in 
quod;  he  will  understand  that  word,  being  now  resident  in  the  flash  capital."  A  gar- 
bled version  of  the  song  got  into  the  newspapers  and  Hobhouse  was  greatly  indignant 
at  Byron's  writing  it  and  at  Murray's  allowing  a  knowledge  of  it  to  get  into  circulation. 
The  first  stanza  of  the  ballad  on  Hobhouse  runs  thus : 


"How  came  you  in  Hob's  pound  to  cool, 
My  boy  Hobbie  0? 
Because  I  bade  the  people  pull 
The  House  into  the  Lobbv  O." 


C333 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 


May  5th  1821. 
My  Dear  Sir 

I  open  the  packet  sealed  a  quarter  to  4  p.  m.  in  order  to  add  a  few  lines. 

I  have  not  begun  with  the  [?  Quarterers]  but  let  them  look  to  it.    As  for 

[illegible]  you  well  know  that  I  have  not  been  unfair  to  his  poetry  even  I, 

but  I  have  lately  had  some  information  of  his  critical  proceedings,  which 

may  bring  that  on  him  he  will  be  sorry  for.    I  happen  to  know  that  of  him 

which  would  annihilate  him  when  he  pretends  to  teach  morality.   As  to  the 

old  Serpent's  sentimental  twaddle,  let  the  carrion  crow  croak.    I  won't  say 

anything  for  fear  of  being  indelicate. 

Yours  ever 

Byron 
[?  To  John  Murray.] 


R*  May  21**.  1821 
My  dear  Hoppner: 

I  return  to  the  subject  of  Saturday  (I  wrote  by  that  day's  post),  because 
the  Milan  Gazette  again  repeats  the  same  thing  in  the  same  words  only  with 
a  different  date  and  an  additional  word.  I  ask  you  to  interfere  because 
otherwise  they  will  do  an  absent  &  obnoxious  individual  no  justice.  If  the 
play  has  been  hissed,  let  them  repeat  it  till  they  are  tired;  but  at  least  state, 
as  all  our  papers  have  done,  how  &  why  it  was  dragged  upon  the  stage 
against  my  positive  orders.  I  merely  wish  the  matter  of  fact;  as  to  criti- 
cism, that  is  opinion  &  of  course  open  to  all  men.  I  have  had  Galignani's 
English  papers  (which  you  will  have  seen)  sent  to  Milan.  I  enclose  you  two 
letters  from  Douglas  Kinnaird  which  will  show  you  what  to  think, — unless 
he  has  egregiously  mis-stated.    A  few  words  from  you  to  the  uppermost  of 

C34n 


LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

the  [illegible]  party  at  Milan  &  Venice  will  be  enough.    I  require  nothing 
but  the  statement  of  the  facts  as  you  will  have  read  them. 

Yours  ever  &  most  truly, 

Byron. 

In  January,  1821,  Byron  learned  that  his  play  "Marino  Faliero,"  which  Murray  was 
just  about  to  publish,  was  to  be  put  on  at  Drury  Lane  Theater  by  Elliston  the  manager. 
He  protested  vigorously  against  the  play  being  produced,  and  his  friends  secured  from 
the  Lord  Chancellor  an  injunction  forbidding  the  performance.  This  was  later  with- 
drawn, however,  and  the  play  was  performed  on  April  21,  April  30,  and  five  nights  in 
May.  A  Milan  paper  reported  that  it  had  been  hissed  off  the  stage.  Byron  was  full  of 
wrath  at  these  events,  and  his  letters  to  Hoppner,  Murray,  and  Moore  at  this  time  are 
filled  with  denunciations  of  all  concerned  in  the  matter.  His  letter  of  May  20  to  Moore 
shows  how  the  incident  and  the  false  rumors  finally  ended:  "Since  I  wrote  to  you  last 
week,  I  have  received  English  letters  and  papers,  by  which  I  perceive  that  what  I  took 
for  an  Italian  truth  is,  after  all,  a  French  lie  of  the  Gazette  de  France.  It  contains  two 
ultra-falsehoods  in  as  many  lines.  In  the  first  place,  Lord  B.  did  not  bring  forward  his 
play,  but  opposed  the  same;  and  secondly,  it  was  not  condemned,  but  is  continued  to 
be  acted,  in  despite  of  publisher,  author,  Lord  Chancellor,  and  (for  aught  I  know  to  the 
contrary)  of  audience.  .  .  . 

"You  will  oblige  me,  then,  by  causing  Mr.  Gazette  of  France  to  contradict  himself, 
which,  I  suppose,  he  is  used  to." 


Ravenna,  Oct.  3, 1821 
Dear  Sir 

I  open  the  packet  in  order  to  add  a  few  lines.    Have  you  publicated  three 

plays  in  one  volume?  that  will  be  the  best  way.    The  "poessie"  you  must 

publish  as  heretofore  decided,  but  whether  with  or  without  the  proses  I 

leave  to  your  pleasure.    As  Liston  says,  that  "is  all  hoptional"  you  know. 

Yours,  &c, 

Byron 

[?  To  John  Murray.] 

The  three  plays  mentioned  may  possibly  be  the  following,  which  were  published 
together  on  December  19, 1821 :  "Sardanapalus,  a  Tragedy,"  "The  Two  Foscari,  a  Trag- 
edy," and  "Cain,  a  Mystery." 

C35] 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 


Pisa,  Aug.  28*  1822 
Dear  Sir 

In  a  few  days  I  remove  to  Genoa.  I  am  sick  of  this  place  &  its  damp, 
heavy  air,  which  is  doubtless  owing  to  the  quaggy  soil  and  to  a  hill  covering 
Pisa  towards  the  North  in  a  circular  form,  and  reverberating  down  into  the 
bottom,  where  the  city  stands,  all  the  vapours  wafted  against  it  by  the  south- 
erly winds. 

Your  complaints  are  just,  but  what  remedy  is  there?  I  quite  agree  with 
you  that  nothing  is  worth  an  effort.  As  for  philosophy  &  freedom,  and  all 
that,  they  tell  devilish  well  in  a  stanza,  but  men  have  always  been  fools  & 
slaves,  &  fools  &  slaves  they  always  will  be.  But  I  fancy  every  period  of  life 
has  its  pleasures,  and  as  we  advance  in  life  the  exercise  of  power  and  the 
possession  of  wealth  must  be  great  consolations  to  the  majority.  Gold  is 
worshipped  in  all  climates  without  a  single  temple,  and  by  all  classes  with- 
out a  single  hypocrite.  I  loves  lucre,  a  noble  occupation, — do  as  I  do. 
Lucky  is  he  who  has  neither  creditors  nor  offspring  &  who  owes  neither 
money  nor  affection — after  all,  the  most  difficult  to  pay  of  the  two.  It  can- 
not be  commanded,  for  there  is  no  usury  for  love.    My  horses  are  waiting. 

Believe  me  always, 

yours  affectionately 

Byron 
To  Sir  Godfrey  Webster 

Upper  Broad  St.,  London 


Pisa,  Sept.  1st,  1822. 
My  Dear  Hay 

Your  letter  has  greatly  amused  me.    Pray  tell  me  more  of  these  fine 

things.    This  comes  of  rhyming  at  the  counting  desk!    A  man  in  love  may 

make  a  similar  blunder.    But  there  is  a  cure  for  love;  there  is  none  for 

poetry.    Poets  are  all  mad.    The  ancient  Athenians  fined  Homer  fifty 

drachmas  for  being  a  madman,  but  they  could  not  cure  him.    A  minstrel's 


LETTERS  OF  LORD  RYRON 

wreath  is  the  most  difficult  of  all  trophies  to  attain — envy,  and  doubt,  and 
difficulty  oppose  him  in  the  onset  for  the  prize;  and  if  he  be  strong  &  reso- 
lute enough  to  conquer  &  pass  them  by,  they  still  continue  to  snarl  in  the 
tracks  of  his  "winged  feet"  like  sharks  in  the  wake  of  some  noble  ship, 
watching  their  opportunity  to  devour.  How  is  your  fat  friend?  I  would 
rather  see  him  here  than  Rogers,  the  old  noodle.    I  salute  you  &  remain 

Very  Truly  Yrs 

Noel  Byron 
To  Capt.  J.  Hay 

Post  Office 

Cheltenham 


Genoa,  Nov.  28, 1822 
My  Dear  Webster 

I  must  sincerely  thank  you  for  the  kind  interest  you  are  good  enough  to 
take  in  the  reports  of  the  state  of  my  health.  I  wish  it  was  in  my  power  to 
say  that  those  reports  were  not  only  exaggerated  but  altogether  unfounded. 
The  fact  is  I  have  been  suffering  from  a  slow  fever  which  has  somewhat 
weakened  me,  but  as  I  am  my  own  physician  I  need  not  be  apprehensive  of 
troubling  old  Charon  to  ferry  me  across  the  Styx.  I  could  not  help  laugh- 
ing at  your  delectable  story.  Your  sagacious  friend  reminds  me  of  the  fol- 
lowing quaint  passage  in  a  very  old  copy  of  a  work  on  necromancy. 
Question,  "How  to  raise  a  devil?"  Answer — "Contradict  your  Wyffe."  I 
have  had  some  experience  which  has  convinced  me  of  the  probatum  est. 
He  is  no  beauty,  but  as  lame  as  myself,  still  he  contrives  to  find  a  spare  rib 
now  and  then  besides  his  legitimate  one.  What  a  comfort  to  a  cripple!  He 
is  evidently  a  practical  man,  and  I  have  scarcely  heard  a  single  word  to  his 
dispraise,  although  he  has  never  gone  out  of  his  way  to  court  the  sweet 
voices  of  the  multitude.    My  horses  are  waiting.    II  sempre  umilissimo  ser- 

vitore. 

Biron 

To  Sir  Godfrey  Webster 
Upper  Broad  St.,  London 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 


Genoa,  Jy  2<*,  1823. 
My  Dear  Hoppner 

Your  friend  Mr.  Ingram  called  on  me  some  time  ago,  and  gave  me  a 
tolerable  account  of  you  and  Mrs.  Hoppner,  to  whom  I  present  my  respects. 
I  have  had  letters  from  Cicognara  and  Aglietti  on  the  subject  of  subscribing 
to  Canova's  monument,  and  have  answered  in  the  affirmative,  but  am  unde- 
cided to  what  amount,  being  afraid  of  giving  too  much  or  too  little,  as  it 
might  disgust  the  Subscribers  or  the  Subscribees,  to  err  on  either  side.  I 
should  like  to  hear  your  consular  opinion. 

I  think  (if  I  mistake  not)  that  you  received  from  [illegible]  or  [illegible] 
some  Turkish  articles  (a  dozen  in  number)  and  six  telescopes  (of  which  I 
have  received  two  since),  now  four,  which  you  were  good  enough  to  take 
care  of  for  me  in  my  absence.  As  my  return  to  Venice  is  very  problemat- 
ical, I  could  wish  you  to  dispose  of  them  for  what  they  will  fetch,  and  remit 
the  same;  they  are  quite  unused  and  therefore  as  good  as  new,  and  I  should 
think  not  unlikely  to  be  marketable  for  the  Trieste  or  Levant  trade,  as  I 
originally  brought  them  out  with  the  intention  of  proceeding  to  Turkey, 
where  they  would  have  served  as  acceptable  presents  to  the  natives. 

I  do  not  know  that  any  acquaintances  of  yrs  are  here  except  the  Ingrams 
(I  believe  you  do  not  know  the  Guiccioli)  and  Mrs.  Shelley,  who  is  living  at 
some  distance.  I  see  very  little  of  her — about  once  a  month.  She  is  staying 
with  the  Hunts,  friends  of  Shelley's,  but  I  see  very  little  indeed  of  either. 
Shelley  left  me  his  executor,  but  his  will  is  not  at  present  available,  if  indeed 
it  ever  will  be,  and  his  father  Sir  Timothy  will  do  nothing  for  the  widow  as 
yet,  so  that  it  is  difficult  to  decide  what  is  to  be  done, — she  will  probably 
return  to  her  father  in  the  Spring. 

I  am  staying  at  Albaro  on  a  hill  overlooking  Genoa,  cold  &  frosty  but 
airy, — only  one  chimney  in  the  whole  house,  which  is  spacious  enough  for 
twenty.    I  had  been  very  unwell,  but  am  better  and  hope  to  continue  so — 

C38] 


LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

at  least  I  am  temperate  enough — much  more  so  indeed  than  in  Venice, 

where  I  did  not  exceed  in  my  eating  department,  but  I  find  that  the  greater 

the  abstinence,  the  better  the  health.   An  old,  but  not  often  regarded  truism. 

I  should  have  written  to  you  before  but  I  thought  that  the  Congressors 

would  occupy  your  whole  time,  and  Mrs.  Hoppner's  toilet.    I  hope  we  shall 

meet  again  some  day  and  that  you  will  be  merry  and  I  be  wise.    Believe  me 

ever  &  truly 

Yrs 

Noel  Byron. 

P.  S.    If  you  go  to  Switzerland  this  Spring,  I  would  make  an  effort  to  meet 
you  there. 

To  R.  B.  Hoppner,  Esq1"., 
Console  Generale 
di  S.  M.  R. 
Venezia 


cm 


BOOKS  OF  LORD  BYRON 


BOOKS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

One  of  Sir  Walter  Scott's  impressions  of  Byron  after  their  meeting  in  1815  was  that 
the  latter's  reading  did  not  appear  to  have  been  very  extensive.  A  perusal  of  Byron's 
"Letters  and  Journals"  gives  one  an  entirely  opposite  view.  They  show  him  to  have  been 
an  unusually  well-read  man.  In  the  index  to  the  last  edition  of  the  "Letters  and  Jour- 
nals" there  are  two  headings  which  will  well  repay  study  in  this  connection.  Under  the 
entry  "Books  read  by  Lord  Byron"  over  two  hundred  titles  are  listed,  and  under  the 
heading  "Quotations  from  Authors"  there  appear  no  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
names  of  writers  from  whose  works  Byron  makes  quotation.  And  it  is  to  be  remem- 
bered that  these  are  only  the  authors  or  books  which  he  happens  to  mention  in  the 
letters  which  are  printed  in  that  edition.  The  range  of  his  reading  and  quotation  was 
astonishingly  wide,  including  as  it  did  the  greatest  names  in  the  literatures  of  Greece, 
Borne,  Italy,  France,  Germany,  and  England. 

The  list  here  printed  from  a  manuscript  in  the  Bixby  collection  is  additional  tes- 
timony to  the  catholicity  of  the  poet's  taste  and  the  breadth  of  his  intellectual  interests. 
History,  antiquities,  travel,  theology,  poetry,  fiction,  drama,  and  essays  are  all  repre- 
sented by  classic  titles  familiar  to  all  bookmen  and  lovers  of  letters.  If  the  list  repre- 
sents some  portion  of  the  collection  which  Byron  selected  to  take  with  him  on  his 
expedition  to  Greece,  it  compares  very  favorably  with  more  modern  lists  of  the  ideal 
traveling  library. 


From  Zante  9*  July  1824.    L<*  Byron's  Books. 

Swifts  Works  (by  Sr  Walter  Scott)  19  vols  compleat 

Gibbons  Boman  History,  9  vols.  5  &  7  missing 

Fieldings  Works,  12  vols  compleat 

[illegible]  celebres,  13  vols,  compleat. 

Mon  Oncle  Thomas,  4  vols. 

M.  Botte,  3  vols.  vol.  1  missing. 

[illegible] 

C43] 


/ 


POEMS  AND  LETTERS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

Shipwrecks  &  Disasters  at  Sea, 

Watson.    Reign  of  Philip  2d> 

Reign  of  PhilP.  3, 

Pausanias's  Greece.  2  &  3  vols., 

Hooke's  Roman  Histy., 

Anastasius, 

Antiquary, 

Kenilworth, 

Ivanhoe, 

Tales  of  My  Landlord.    1st  Series. 

2  Series 

3D°  — 

Hist,  des  Republiques  italiennes, 

Langhorne's  Plutarch, 

Mitford's  Histy-  of  Greece, 

Gil  Bias, 

Montesquieu 

Sheridan's  Works,  given  to  Cl  Gamba,  18  Aug*- 

Essais  de  Montaigne  (Sent  to  Mr.  H.  Browne,  Aug 
14, 1824) 

Gli  Animali  parlanti, 

Reflexions  sur  l'Evidence  du  X:isme, 

Human  Nature  in  its  II:  fold  state, 

Maxs-  de  la  Rochefoucauld, 

Harriet  [?  Newele], 

Jones  on  the  Trinity, 

Roderick  Random,  C*  Gamba,  18  Aug*- 

Peregrine  Pickle, 

Les  Montagnes, 

Bowring.    Russian  Anthology, 

Alfieri  (Sent  to  Mr.  Ham.  Browne,  Aug.  14*,  1824) 

Bowring.    Matins  &  Vespers, 

Peregrinus  Proteus, 


3  vols. 

2  vols. 

2  — 

1  vol.  missing 

11  vols. 

2  missing 

3  vols. 

3  vols. 

3  vols. 

3  vols. 

1  vol.  ', 

3  missing. 

4  vols. 

3  vols. 

2  vol.  missing 

10  vols. 

6  vols.,  missing 

6  vols. 

6  vols. 

(4  miss'g) 

3  vols. 

8  vols. 

2  vols. 

4 

3v. 

1vol. 

1vol. 

lv. 

lv. 

lv. 

lv. 

lv. 

lv. 

2  vols. 

7  odd  vols. 

1  vol. 

2  vols. 

BOOKS  OF  LORD  BYRON 

2  v. 

1  v.  (the  3d) 

3  vols, 
lvol. 

2  vols, 
lvol. 


Commentaire  de  Cesar, 

Dante, 

Turner's  Tour  in  the  Levant, 

Illustrations  of  Divine  Gov1, 

[illegible]  Saxon  Campaigns, 

Beauforts  Karamanie, 

Emmeline  by  Mrs.  [illegible'], 

Dr  Reid  on  nervous  affections, 

British  Essayists, 

Gillie's  Hist:  of  Ant:  Greece, 

Le  Vite  di  Plutarco, 

Memoires  de  Sully. 

Falconer's  Shipwreck, 

Oeuvres  de  Florian  (Don  Quichotte), 

Ariosto, 

Plutarch  Morals, 

Rime  de  Poeti  Ravennati, 

Baxter.    Call  to  the  unconverted. 

©otktaiaot  (sent  to  Mr.  H.  Browne), 

Discourses  &  Sermons, 

L'Europe  &  L'Amerique  (Pradt), 

Collec1  Complete  des  ouvrages  par  B.  d.  Constant, 

The  29th  Report  of  the  Directors  of  the  Miss>-  Socy- 

French  Grammar. 

Stanley's  Philosophy. 

Elegant  Epistles. 


lvol. 
lvol. 

5  vols. 

2  vols,  odd 

6  vols, 
vols.  4  &  5. 
1  vol. 

5  v.  1st  missing. 

lvol.  (the 4*) 

4  vols.  (3d  miss'g), 

lv. 

lv. 

lvol. 

lvol. 

1  vol.  (2) 

vol.2 


£4511 


LORD  BYRON  <>\  HIS  DKATH-BED 

From  an  engraving  by  L.  Clark  after  a  drawing  by  R.  Seymour 

published  bv  Knight  &  Laeev.  1825 


aaa-HTAaa  sih  wo  woflYa  aaoj 

.Mjoni/tr'.  .H  /d  giuws^b  e  t^i\n  vimJD  .J  yd  gorangiia  rie  movl 
2S8J  ./^oblI  &  ld;°iri/I  /d  b^risilduq 


*    • 


•'  ■      ' 


OF  THESE  POEMS  AND  LETTERS  OF  BYRON  EDITED  FROM  THE  ORIGINAL  MANUSCRIPTS 

IN  THE  POSSESSION  OF  W.  K.  BLXBY,  FIFTY-TWO  COPDZS  ONLY  HAVE  BEEN 

PRINTED  FOR  MEMBERS  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  THE  DOFOBS  ON 

ITALIAN  HANDMADE  PAPER,  AT  THE  DE  VINNE  PRESS, 

IN  THE  MONTH  OF  MARCH,  1912. 


